One explanation for the Steelers’ bleak state of the union:
bad luck at pivotal turns. An alternate reality with few modifications would
place the franchise in potentially far better standing than it is now.
A common-sense ruling of the Jesse James play gives the
Steelers home-field advantage and a friendlier Super Bowl LII route. They
possessed more talent than the 2017 Patriots, the latest Pats iteration to
benefit from playing a Steelers team without the full services of its
marquee trio. A strong case exists that the '17 Steelers team, armed with seven
Pro Bowlers without Ryan Shazier, would have taken part in an all-Pennsylvania
Super Bowl had James’ touchdown reception stood.
The 2015 Steelers had the eventual champion Broncos on the
ropes in the playoffs without Antonio Brown or Le’Veon Bell. Had Vontaze
Burfict not concussed Brown the week before, those Steelers may have headed to
the AFC championship game as live underdogs.
Had at least one of these sequences played out differently,
the Steelers are stronger and maybe do not have to navigate much of the
turbulence they have over the past several months.
Another explanation for the present circumstances: This
model organization has regressed and has management issues on multiple levels.
The Steelers’ big-stage shortcomings and the near-certain March departures of
Bell and Brown represent a seismic macro failure.
As it stands now, dysfunction will define this era — not the
three AFC North titles, the 54-25-1 record since 2014 or the assembling of the
second-best offensive nucleus in team history. Art Rooney II is incorrect:
His franchise has a major culture problem. And General Manager Kevin
Colbert’s recent comments do not reveal accountability.
Someone should have to answer for the Steelers’ situation,
perhaps at a level above Mike Tomlin.
Letting the Bell drama escalate cost the 2018 team a playoff
berth. Pittsburgh’s wizardry in identifying receiver talent aside, Brown’s
impending exit could torpedo a dominant offense that has been heavily reliant
on him for years.
Losing both superstars in their primes without receiving a
first-round pick in return is an abject failure.
Day 2 draft compensation — via whatever the Brown return produces,
and the 2020 third-round compensatory pick from Bell's signing — would help a
different type of team more than this one.
Absorbing a $21 million dead-money hit to trade their best
player represents a massive Steelers PR blow. No return will bring face value,
and the forthcoming trade resulting in Brown dead money comprising nearly a
ninth of Pittsburgh's cap limits the front office’s ability to supplement an
aging roster.
The Steelers’ cornerstone players are north of 30 or will be
soon. His presence keying the Steelers' relevance, Ben Roethlisberger was
always the most important member of the “Killer B’s” troika. But injuries make
him an old 37 (in boxing parlance). How many more good seasons are left? More
draft picks will not help him like his longtime All-Pro teammates would have.
Being dealt bad hands has been the Steeler norm. Bell missed
the 2014 playoff opener — a home loss to the Ravens. He left the 2016 AFC
championship game — a Patriots rout — in the first quarter. Shazier’s absence
crippled the 2017 defense, which ceded 45 points to a Blake Bortles-led offense
in the Ben-Bell-Brown finale. The James reversal, in a game Brown left due to a
second-quarter injury, was so controversial that the NFL changed the rule.
Pittsburgh also annually succumbs to bad losses (or ties).
Mike Glennon quarterbacked the 2017 Bears (5-11) to one win before
being replaced; the Steelers missed home-field advantage by one win. In 2015,
Pittsburgh lost to a Ryan Mallett-piloted Baltimore outfit. The 11-5 2014 team lost
at home to the 2-14 Buccaneers (more Glennon) and dropped a 31-10 game to the
Browns.
Last season expanded the catalog, with Hue Jackson's Browns
forging a tie before losses in Denver (the fallout from which Brown blames
others while taking no responsibility himself for causing this imminent
divorce) and Oakland led to the Ravens winning the division.
Tomlin’s two Super Bowl appearances and eight playoff berths
in 12 seasons give him an upper-echelon resume. Only the Patriots, Packers and
Seahawks have more postseason bookings than the Steelers’ six this decade.
Tomlin’s recent teams have revealed flaws, and the disciplinary measures
have been shaky. The defensively oriented coach’s defenses have failed in big
spots, and the 2017 season required a few saves from Todd
Haley’s offense to beat non-playoff teams.
Tomlin benefits from the Steelers’ continuity-centric mantra
(three head coaches since 1969). But his teams' penchant for letdowns and NFL
news cycle content should at least call his job security into question.
None of these problems seems to land on Colbert, which is
strange given the Bell saga and the Steelers’ cautious free agency approaches
limiting their ability to cover up draft misses (and there have been a few big
ones in recent first rounds).
While this era's champions have used free agency or trades
to plan parades — the Seahawks buying a pass rush, the Patriots’ Darrelle Revis
addition and frequent swaps, the Broncos overhauling their defense, and the
Eagles widespread outside-augmentation effort — Colbert has not given
Roethlisberger similar help when necessary. Joe Haden has played well. So has
Vance McDonald. There have not been enough attempts like this, with last year’s
poor effort to replace Shazier the latest example.
Colbert and Tomlin have achieved plenty, the 20th-year GM
being the architect of two Steelers championships. But the myriad dramas
overshadowing everything else lately do not provide much faith that this is the
tandem to lead the franchise out of trouble.
Brown loses credibility with each public statement (and
weakens Colbert's ability to call his bluff and attempt to bring him back),
though Colbert isn't helping matters. The team that signs Bell (1,541
regular-season touches) to a big contract will likely regret it. While James
Conner can be a poor man's Bell, the Steelers will voyage into new territory in
attempting to replace Brown. They have effectively found productive receivers
for decades, but Brown is an all-time great.
These debacles have damaged the Steelers’ reputation.
Presiding over them, along with one of the NFL’s signature
21st-century underachievement stretches, Rooney and Colbert not acknowledging a
problem exists is troubling. At some point this amounts to a lack of
institutional control.
Amid this chaos, the Ravens and Browns are in position to
threaten the contention route of a Steelers core that does not have much time
left. For the first time in several years, Pittsburgh does not enter free
agency with a roster appearing capable of a Super Bowl climb. If the younger
AFC North nuclei surpass the Steelers this season, the franchise will take
another hit.
What will stop the fusillade of bad press is the team
showing it still possesses the infrastructure necessary to compete without its
departing stars. Short of that, it will be time to rebuild.
And the Steelers of this era did not accomplish enough to
make that endgame tolerable.
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