Future of the Steelers

Last week, Mike Tomlin stepped down as the head coach of the Pittsburgh Steelers. He has been the head coach for almost the entirety of this blog. 19 years. He finished with a record of 193-114-2. He won a Super Bowl, and came very close to winning a second one. He also had a record of 8-12 in the playoffs. Those failures in the playoffs have been well-documented. His teams have not won in the playoffs since the 2016-2017 season. The Steelers lost in the first round again this year, and he quit the next day.

I have been a Tomlin defender for many years. I think you can find numerous posts on here about how I think he is a great coach. I still believe those things, but I think his time in Pittsburgh had to come to an end. Steelers fans like to mock his streak of non-losing seasons, but I think it is impressive. He managed some winning seasons with some rough offenses. Thank you for the 19 years, Coach (and all of the funny Tomlinisms over the years)! Good luck on whatever comes next.

Now, that brings me to the real point of this post. Where should the Steelers go from here? Well, obviously they need to hire a head coach. And I will not waste your time going over the candidates or who I think they should go after. All of the names I have seen so far are great options. Instead, I want to talk about the team itself.

I am going to say something slightly controversial: I think the Steelers should trade TJ Watt. I like Watt, but I think the reliance on EDGE rushers is actually hurting defenses. I do not have any data to back that up, just a gut feeling. What it feels like to me is that as every team loads up on these EDGE guys, offenses are trying to take them out of the game by running the ball a little more. Granted, the days of running backs getting 25-30 carries per game is probably gone, now you have two backs carrying that load, plus teams using receivers more. Plus, QBs utilizing those quick passes really seems to neutralize an EDGE rusher. I did not look into the contract stuff with trading Watt, but I think the Steelers could still get a high draft pick for him. Not a first-round pick, but I think a second-round, and then some lower picks with it.

Over on the offensive side of the ball. They need to draft a quarterback. Either move up in the draft and go after a Mendoza (if they look at him and think he could be the guy). Or identify someone that they could take with their first pick. Granted, all of this will depend on who they hire as a coach, and what kind of QB he wants to build an offense around. 

I would have probably said that bringing Aaron Rodgers back would be a huge mistake, but I think if you draft someone, you could bring back Rodgers, as long as he understands that this is his last ride, and he needs to be a mentor to whoever you draft. If he is not willing, then I think you can roll with Mason Rudolph. If the Steelers do draft a QB in the first round, they would need to go after a receiver after. OR, if they see a QB they like they could target later, then use that first-round pick on a receiver. 

Okay, those are just some of my thoughts.