Will the Pittsburgh Steelers Be an Epic Disaster in 2021?
The Pittsburgh Steelers are a product of NFL regularity. They’ve had three head coaches given that 1969. Each and every has won a Super Bowl though earning the playoffs a greater part of the time. The franchise hasn’t had a dropping season given that 2003, when it went 6-10 and parlayed that failure into drafting Ben Roethlisberger eleventh in general the up coming yr. A season following that, the Steelers have been lifting the Lombardi Trophy. Head mentor Mike Tomlin additional another Super Bowl acquire a couple years later on, and he hasn’t had a dropping season in his 14 years at the helm of the franchise.
Is that streak of relentless competence about to close? Who is familiar with. But it’s crystal crystal clear, even two months forward of the season, that it’s possible, even probable. The readily available evidence claims the 2021 Steelers need to be mediocre at ideal. Avoiding that fate may well be Tomlin’s largest coaching problem nevertheless. If the Steelers someway handle to keep previously mentioned .five hundred this yr, permit on your own make another playoff run, they need to rename the crew following him.
Here’s why this season is shaping up to be a rough just one in Pittsburgh.
The Steelers pale really hard at the close of 2020, and their quarterback seemed to run out of gasoline right away.
The Steelers started off past season 11–0 and have been the past crew in the NFL to drop a video game. They finished 12–4 and then dropped a Wild Card playoff video game to the Browns. The score was 48–37, but it was not almost that close the Steelers have been down 7–0 following their first snap of the video game and trailed 28–0 at the close of the first quarter.
It was indicative of how the Steelers fell apart in the past quarter of the frequent season. A dominant protection looked a little little bit less so, and additional importantly, Ben Roethlisberger steadily (then out of the blue) ran out of steam. The now 39-yr-aged QB was coming off elbow tendon surgical treatment that price tag him virtually all of 2019, and he looked like, very well, a 39-yr-aged QB coming off elbow tendon surgical treatment. His ideal month by both equally passer score and yards for each endeavor was September, and he declined sharply following that. He was notably dreadful in December.
The Steelers did not feel to trust Roethlisberger’s arm power at all. His average focus on was just 6.9 yards downfield, just one of the cheapest quantities of any commencing QB. And he only spent two.1 seconds in the pocket on his average endeavor, also just one of the cheapest quantities of any QB. The image was crystal clear: The Steelers required him to get rid of the ball speedily and did not consider he could toss it significantly with any regularity. It was a sad scene, given that Roethlisberger built a career out of performing just the opposite—extending performs towards oncoming go rushers, applying his legs to get out of sacks, and then rifling the ball downfield. Try to remember this person?
That’s no longer Roethlisberger, and the close of 2020 was so bleak that it briefly looked like the Steelers would lower him or he’d retire. As it stands, 2021 appears probable to be his past yr. It is not crystal clear that he has plenty of remaining in the tank to make a storybook ending.
Totally free agency was not sort to Pittsburgh at all.
The Steelers finished the 2020 season with about $6 million in expending room beneath the NFL’s salary cap. Then, because of a COVID-pushed decline in league revenues, the league-broad salary cap dropped by about $16 million for 2021. You can see the issue.
After past yr, a few of the Steelers’ most important defensive players saw their contracts expire. Pittsburgh had little hope of re-signing them. Edge-speeding linebacker Bud Dupree remaining for a five-yr, $85 million offer with the Tennessee Titans. Nickel cornerback Mike Hilton took a 4-yr, $24 million offer with the division rival Cincinnati Bengals. Dupree and Hilton have been two of the most significant signings of the offseason, and both equally have been exiting Pittsburgh.
The Steelers may well be capable to climate the Dupree reduction because second-yr outside linebacker Alex Highsmith confirmed fantastic signs as a rookie. But they have no crystal clear replacement for Hilton, who became a staple in an era the place fantastic slot cornerbacks are essential.
On offense, the Steelers have been capable to hold No. 1 receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster on a just one-yr offer. But the offseason took a toll on that device in other techniques.
Roethlisberger’s offensive line may well get him decapitated mid-video game.
The Steelers have had just one of the NFL’s better offensive traces for a extensive time, although it pale fairly in excess of the past two years. Now, on the other hand, the circumstance is dire.
Heart Maurkice Pouncey retired following earning 9 Professional Bowls in his 10 years anchoring the Pittsburgh line. Remaining deal with Alejandro Villanueva remaining in cost-free agency for the rival Baltimore Ravens. Matt Feiler, who performed for the Steelers as both equally a guard and deal with, remaining for the Chargers. And in June, the Steelers lower six-time Professional Bowl suitable guard David DeCastro, who performed improperly in 2020 but still figured to be just one of the team’s better linemen in 2021.
In early June, Professional Soccer Target rated the Steelers’ line 29th out of 32 teams and termed DeCastro “the just one stabilizing player” up front. Well, he’s long gone now. The Steelers are poised to have just one of the worst offensive traces in football, even if second-yr guard Kevin Dotson builds on a wonderful rookie season and entrenches himself as a DeCastro replacement. To restock the line, the Steelers are leaning on a mix of mid-spherical draft picks and reduced-amount cost-free agents.
The Steelers’ shaky-at-ideal line will pose a issue for Roethlisberger, naturally. But it will also be a issue for first-spherical rookie operating back Najee Harris, who needs some bulldozers to give him place to display the comprehensive assortment of his skills.
The circumstance isn’t out of manage nevertheless, but it could spiral.
It is possible to explain to oneself a fantastic story about how this Steelers season will unfold. Certain, the protection dropped a couple critical players, but Pittsburgh had just one of the ideal defenses in the NFL past yr, and there are worse matters than declining from “elite” to “very fantastic.” And sure, Roethlisberger was rough in the late phases of past season, but he has a extensive track report of achievements and did handle to get the Steelers to 11–0 just before falling apart. As well as, the Steelers have had some undesirable offensive traces just before, and he thrived in any case.
But all of that needs viewing the Steelers in the most favorable mild possible. An additional way to search at them is that they have some strengths, but their most important participant is speedily closing in on the close of his career, his offensive line could be a hazard to his security, and a protection that would typically offer some margin for mistake need to be worse than it was past yr. Tomlin has pulled rabbits out of his hat just before, but crafting a productive season this drop would certainly be his largest feat so significantly.
For obtain to unique equipment films, celebrity interviews, and additional, subscribe on YouTube!