The Steelers made the decision to fire longtime offensive coordinator Todd Haley.
The playoffs have been great this year, but there are 28 teams sitting around and waiting for them to end. With them in mind, we’re focusing on their futures and offering humble suggestions for this offseason.
These are mine, but feel free to contribute your own suggestions below. Steelers fans who watch every snap will have more credibility than the rest of us.
PITTSBURGH STEELERS
Mike Tomlin’s Steelers rolled through the regular season as usual, with a 13-3 record that netted them a first-round bye. While Tomlin still receives some criticism, he’s rattling off a remarkable run at the helm. He’s won at least 10+ games in 8 of his 11 seasons with the team, and never finished worse than 8-8. Of course, with this Steelers’ unit, good regular seasons aren’t the goal. Let’s see what the team may do to create more playoff success in 2018.
Step one: keep the band together
Considering all the success that they’ve had, there are always a strange amount of rumors and rumblings in Pittsburgh about breaking up the band.
OC Todd Haley receives the most flak — like almost every offensive coordinator in the NFL. There’s a chance that he may become the scapegoat for the loss to Jacksonville, but that’d be silly in my mind. After all, his offense just passed for 400 yards and scored 40 points against the best pass defense in the league.
Sure, Todd Haley may be an asshole, but he’s also a great coordinator. His offensive scheme appears to be ideally suited for this team as well. Haley’s system utilizes lateral spaces across the middle of the field, catering to Antonio Brown‘s strengths. He’s also proven to be a great developer of wide receivers — shown throughout his career from his early days in Arizona to super-young JuJu Smith-Schuster‘s success this season.
Most importantly of all, Haley’s quick-hitting attack keeps Ben Roethlisberger‘s jersey clean. In the past, the Steelers allowed Big Ben to take all sorts of punishment, relying on him to make magic happen in an improvised setting. As he’s aged, they’ve wisely limited those hits. Over the last two seasons, Roethlisberger’s taken a grand total of 38 sacks combined. Prior to Haley, Roethlisberger had gotten sacked over 38+ times in 6 separate individual seasons, which doesn’t even account for all the years he missed time.
Simply put: the Steelers should keep Todd Haley, as long as they can stomach him.
Meanwhile, RB Le’Veon Bell may become his own type of problem as he seeks a long-term contract. He’s even threatened to sit out or retire if he can’t get his way. Bell has some credibility to his argument. He’s still in his prime, and his skills as a receiver are more valued than ever in today’s game. That said, he’s also a running back in a league that doesn’t value running backs as smart investments. Bell will be turning 26 soon and coming off his 5th season in the NFL; it’s hard to give him a fat long-term deal knowing he may only have 2-3 years of tread in those tires.
Franchising Bell again makes the most sense from the Steelers’ point of view, although they’re tight on the cap and would have to get creative with the rest of their roster to fit in that $14-15 million salary. If Bell doesn’t like that? Oh well. He’s going to have to accept the harsh realities of the NFL landscape right now. If he refuses and demands to sit out, then that’s on him. If I ran the Steelers, I’d call that bluff. Running backs have a short window to get rich — I can’t imagine he’d jeopardize his career like that.
Step two: Don’t think about life without Ben Roethlisberger yet
Eli Manning, Philip Rivers, and Ben Roethlisberger entered the NFL together in the 2004 draft, and there’s a good chance that they’ll leave together as well. Contractually, their big guaranteed money expires after 2018, in which case they may all step aside and allow their teams to usher in a new QB to take over the mantle in 2019.
Despite the prospect of a massive hole under center in 2019, I’d urge the Steelers to treat a QB succession plan as a luxury, not a necessity, using the exact same logic (and previous two paragraphs) that I did with the Chargers and Philip Rivers. Here’s why.
(1) Ben Roethlisberger is still playing at an elite level. On the field, it’s difficult to see any decline in terms of his arm strength or accuracy. Perhaps he’s not as good of an athlete anymore, but he doesn’t need to be. As mentioned before, Todd Haley’s offense limits Roethlisberger’s sacks and his punishment.
Roethlisberger is 35 and turning 36 in March. By historical NFL standards, that’s ancient. In today’s NFL, it’s slightly post-prime. Drew Brees and Tom Brady are several years older and still slinging it. I’d count on Roethlisberger playing (well) in 2018, with a strong chance that he may return in 2019 as well.
(2) The team won’t be able to find a surefire heir apparent. The QBs that you can pick at # 28 overall aren’t going to be guaranteed starters. Hell, the QBs you pick at # 8 overall aren’t either. These are signal callers that will have been passed over by no less than 3-4 other teams. If a QB like Mason Rudolph from Oklahoma State falls to the Steelers in R1 or R2 and they happen to like him, then, by all means, go for it. But the team doesn’t need to force a QB at this stage.
(3) Their window is still wide open. The Steelers may have lost this year, but they’re going to be one of the favorites in the AFC and the NFL again next season. If they select a QB in R1 or R2 who will sit on the bench all year long, that means they’ll have passed up a positional player who may have started for them or at least been a valuable rotational player. Given their tight salary cap situation, they can’t pass up a relatively cheap starter like that. The Steelers are ready to contend again, so they need to load up and take this swing while they still can.
Step three: Think about life without Ryan Shazier (on the field)
This may be uncomfortable to talk about because Ryan Shazier’s health and well-being is more important than the Steelers winning an extra game or two. However, if we’re looking at the cold reality of the roster, the Steelers need to consider how they’re going to replace Shazier, who most likely won’t play in 2018 or beyond.
And that’d be a big loss. Shazier represented the prototype of the “modern LB” who had blinding speed and could match up with any offense thrown his way.
That type of player — even a poor man’s Shazier — is an important complement to the rest of this defense. DC Keith Butler did a strong job generating pressure; in fact, the team led the entire NFL with 55 sacks. A lot of players contributed to that, including stud Cam Heyward (12 sacks) and LBs Vince Williams (8) and T.J. Watt (7). That aspect of their defense should continue in 2018.
However, adding a speedy LB/DB to help in coverage and to help in the run game will be an important move to make. The team allowed 4.4 yards per carry to opponents last year (and 4.3 in 2016), suggesting that it may have been a need even before Shazier went down. Strong safety Sean Davis led the team in tackles, but PFF actually graded him poorly with a 35.8 mark (85th among safeties.) Perhaps the Steelers don’t need BOTH a shiny new LB and safety, but at least one of the two will be critical. If that player’s more of a hybrid DB/LB — like the Cardinals’ Deone Bucannon — even better.
In fact, I’d consider using their R1 pick on that type of monster back. Fortunately for them, ILB and SS aren’t huge priorities for most teams, so a stud may indeed slip their way. They won’t get the elite of the elite, but they should land a starter. In terms of the linebackers, I’d eye Texas’ Malik Jefferson, a fast ‘backer who fits into that Shazier lane. Speedy Jerome Baker (like Shazier, from Ohio State) may be a good consolation prize in R2. In terms of safety help, I’d be looking hard at Alabama DB Ronnie Harrison. He’s a physical enforcer at 6’3″ who can hold up in coverage as well. He may not be on Landon Collins‘ level, but he’s not far off. Harrison is unlikely to slip to the end of R1, but you never know.
Adding a player like that would be a nice add for the Steelers in R1 or R2, and give their defense another star that they may need to push themselves over the top. The offensive line may be a secondary priority since the run blocking slipped this year; adding a guard in the R3 range would be a smart move.
The bottom line
Many fans (including myself) picked the Pittsburgh Steelers to win the Super Bowl this season, so a loss in R2 has to be considered a little bit of a disappointment. That said, all the pieces should be in place for another run next year, provided the egos and salary cap issues work themselves out.
