A new term is being bandied about this franchise, "arrogance". No, not at Ben, but the organization itself. Ben has always been a lightening rod, the problem with this franchise goes way above his role. Even above Tomlin. Even above Colbert. But ownership. And I will explain, but there just seems to a reluctance to change. To bring in new people, outsiders, fresh blood. There seems to a reluctance to move on from people who are past their prime, or aren't performing. This wasn't always the case.
I have been hinting at the past few years, that the Steelers franchise was one of the true joke franchises in all of sport for its existence when Art Rooney "The Chief" ran the team. Beloved, but he was nothing really more than a nice, native, one of the boys Bob Nutting. When Art finally put his son in charge (Dan) the Steelers transformed from one of the true jokes, to one of the greatest franchises in all of sport. Not just did they win championships, and contend almost every year, they were pioneers in scouting HBC's and mined talent like Shell, White, Greenwood, Stallworth from those schools. They hired 3 guys who never were head coaches, and that is all who they had to hire in 50 years. They pioneered football by better chemistry. Had schemes that were innovative and combined with talent, changed rules. They mostly drafted towards the end of rounds, but still acquired more talent than most. They were mostly a model franchise without much infighting and drama, almost boring. Now it is always one drama after another.
Ben. It is obvious that he is done. Why they would bring him back with that line, it is why I say the Steelers need to go 5-12 or 4-13 because it seems like this franchise all the way up to the ownership needs a reboot, a calibration point. Even the fans know this. A lot of bad draft decisions, the lack of capital put forth on an OL when you intend to keep an aging QB around is mind boggling. It is a franchise that right not, rudderless. Afraid to admit where they are. Moving up to 10 to take an undersized, non impact INSIDE LB was ludicrous. The Steelers apparently don't use much analytics when it comes to these decisions. As much as I supported drafting Najee, perhaps the right move was to trade down, get some more picks and address the OL first, then RB.
I don't know where they go. They are rid of Ben's cap hit anchor next year, time time to move on.
The Dan moved on and passed on and this has his son (Art II) in charge. Things have changed. The innovativeness has gone. It has become an organization hanging on to the past, the "Steelers Way", because that has what worked. The problem is, it isn't working now. One thing that has been true under Noll, under Cowher, you would see many assistant coaches come in, and then eventually get promoted into higher positions and head coaching roles. Carson, Perles, Widenhoffer, Dungy, Wisenhunt, Gailey, Arians, Lebeau, Haslett, Malarkey, etc....etc.... Under Tomlin, this has stopped. It has been nepotism. I mean OL was clearly a problem last year, so you fired the OL coach and hired his understudy. Randy Fichtner was a joke as an OC, you fire him, and hire his understudy. Matt Canada a 1st year NFL offense that relies on a lot of motion and some RPO is given a bad OL and a 39 year old QB who does things his own way. Come on. Keith Butler has been here forever. The DB coaches, Tom Bradley? Come on. Carnell Lake? Teryl Austin? Are there any coaches outside of Pittsburgh maybe? Many colleges spend more on their coaching staff than the Steelers do theirs. That is an indictment. But the biggest indictment, the Steelers hire lousy coaches now or promote within, no one moves on to a better job.
Mike Tomlin has never had a losing season. Marvin Lewis strung together many winning seasons too. Never won a playoff game. Mike Tomlin, with a HOF QB mind you, has won 3 playoff games since 2010. The one gifted to them against Cincy. A game they scored zero TD's to then Mahome less Chiefs and to a really mediocre Dolphins team. The Steelers pride themselves on being a Super Bowl Contender, but lately the acceptance seems very Pirates like, you know, finish with a winning record, eek in to the playoffs and see what happens. They have lost to Tim Tebow, the Jaguars (twice) and the Browns. Marvin Lewis was fired for this type of record finally. Mike McCarthy has won a Super Bowl more recently than Tomlin (in fact over Tomlin) and he was fired. Tomlin;'s teams the last 4 years have completely folded down the stretch. But you know, there is that Rooney rule so you have to tip toe around criticism of him. It was always "well who would you want over Tomlin?" Right now...the list grows longer. But I can answer with "I Dunno, but there is someone out there". The organization has gotten stale, a lot of discipline issues, a lot of just questionable moves and too much focusing on "brands" rather than the logo.
I have been hinting at the past few years, that the Steelers franchise was one of the true joke franchises in all of sport for its existence when Art Rooney "The Chief" ran the team. Beloved, but he was nothing really more than a nice, native, one of the boys Bob Nutting. When Art finally put his son in charge (Dan) the Steelers transformed from one of the true jokes, to one of the greatest franchises in all of sport. Not just did they win championships, and contend almost every year, they were pioneers in scouting HBC's and mined talent like Shell, White, Greenwood, Stallworth from those schools. They hired 3 guys who never were head coaches, and that is all who they had to hire in 50 years. They pioneered football by better chemistry. Had schemes that were innovative and combined with talent, changed rules. They mostly drafted towards the end of rounds, but still acquired more talent than most. They were mostly a model franchise without much infighting and drama, almost boring. Now it is always one drama after another.
Ben. It is obvious that he is done. Why they would bring him back with that line, it is why I say the Steelers need to go 5-12 or 4-13 because it seems like this franchise all the way up to the ownership needs a reboot, a calibration point. Even the fans know this. A lot of bad draft decisions, the lack of capital put forth on an OL when you intend to keep an aging QB around is mind boggling. It is a franchise that right not, rudderless. Afraid to admit where they are. Moving up to 10 to take an undersized, non impact INSIDE LB was ludicrous. The Steelers apparently don't use much analytics when it comes to these decisions. As much as I supported drafting Najee, perhaps the right move was to trade down, get some more picks and address the OL first, then RB.
I don't know where they go. They are rid of Ben's cap hit anchor next year, time time to move on.
The Dan moved on and passed on and this has his son (Art II) in charge. Things have changed. The innovativeness has gone. It has become an organization hanging on to the past, the "Steelers Way", because that has what worked. The problem is, it isn't working now. One thing that has been true under Noll, under Cowher, you would see many assistant coaches come in, and then eventually get promoted into higher positions and head coaching roles. Carson, Perles, Widenhoffer, Dungy, Wisenhunt, Gailey, Arians, Lebeau, Haslett, Malarkey, etc....etc.... Under Tomlin, this has stopped. It has been nepotism. I mean OL was clearly a problem last year, so you fired the OL coach and hired his understudy. Randy Fichtner was a joke as an OC, you fire him, and hire his understudy. Matt Canada a 1st year NFL offense that relies on a lot of motion and some RPO is given a bad OL and a 39 year old QB who does things his own way. Come on. Keith Butler has been here forever. The DB coaches, Tom Bradley? Come on. Carnell Lake? Teryl Austin? Are there any coaches outside of Pittsburgh maybe? Many colleges spend more on their coaching staff than the Steelers do theirs. That is an indictment. But the biggest indictment, the Steelers hire lousy coaches now or promote within, no one moves on to a better job.
Mike Tomlin has never had a losing season. Marvin Lewis strung together many winning seasons too. Never won a playoff game. Mike Tomlin, with a HOF QB mind you, has won 3 playoff games since 2010. The one gifted to them against Cincy. A game they scored zero TD's to then Mahome less Chiefs and to a really mediocre Dolphins team. The Steelers pride themselves on being a Super Bowl Contender, but lately the acceptance seems very Pirates like, you know, finish with a winning record, eek in to the playoffs and see what happens. They have lost to Tim Tebow, the Jaguars (twice) and the Browns. Marvin Lewis was fired for this type of record finally. Mike McCarthy has won a Super Bowl more recently than Tomlin (in fact over Tomlin) and he was fired. Tomlin;'s teams the last 4 years have completely folded down the stretch. But you know, there is that Rooney rule so you have to tip toe around criticism of him. It was always "well who would you want over Tomlin?" Right now...the list grows longer. But I can answer with "I Dunno, but there is someone out there". The organization has gotten stale, a lot of discipline issues, a lot of just questionable moves and too much focusing on "brands" rather than the logo.
