Bell: Big Changes Necessary to Get Steelers Out of NFL Purgatory
Saturday night’s loss to the Baltimore Ravens on wild card weekend is the latest installment of the Pittsburgh Steelers continuing to fall short in the postseason. Make no mistake about it, this end of season collapse is a pretty dark moment for a proud franchise. Losing five straight to end the season means that this rotten stench figures to linger over this building throughout the offseason.
So, what lies ahead? That we don’t know just yet. But changes have to be coming fast.
When the results are this poor down the stretch, there will pressure applied from outside forces to make significant changes to the coaching staff, roster and everything in between. Whether you like it or not, it is fair. The results are not and have not been good enough lately. As frustrating as it was to watch unfold, the conclusion to the 2024 season is a predictable one that we all should have seen coming.
Pittsburgh’s continued obsession with staying the course and trusting in their own model of team building is a primary reason that they keep underachieving in the postseason. Last offseason, the team ranked 31st in cash spending among NFL teams, fielded the fourth-cheapest offense in the league from a cap space perspective and trotted out the most expensive defense yet again. The results? Both familiar and predictable.
The Steelers’ numbers defensively dropped off over the second half of the season, leading to struggles in the postseason that are nothing new for those paying attention. They are the only team in NFL history to allow 28-plus points in six straight playoff games. That sounds bad on the surface but it gets even worse when you tear those performances apart one by one. They’ve trailed by at least 21 points in all of those games. Just last night, Baltimore was up three touchdowns when they headed to the halftime break and were able to sleep walk through the second half without ever being truly in danger of blowing the lead.
Pittsburgh’s offense was stuck in neutral yet again, which has been a theme over their losing streak to end the season. They are one of the most inefficient rushing teams out there despite an egregious amount of volume. The passing game was predictable and severely limited, with the deep shots down the field being their only calling card, one that isn’t a sustainable way of living on that side of the ball. Their offseason decisions to bring in Arthur Smith as the offensive coordinator and Russell Wilson to command the huddle were upgrades that represented the franchises direction but the end result to the season was exactly the same.
In true Mike Tomlin fashion, they finished with a winning season. Then, the defense got obliterated in the playoffs, leaving a helpless offense to get into a shootout with a star quarterback on the other side. As the playoff shortcomings continue, it has to feel like you’re watching a bad horror film on repeat if you’re a Steelers fan. Some of the names change but year after year, this is a team that is constructed with the same build featuring an over-reliance on 2000s defensive football and an offensive approach that is not suited for the modern NFL.
It’s become glaringly obvious that this is a team that prioritizes the floor of being competitive without actually making the changes necessary to get back to relevancy. For a team with six Super Bowl trophies in the case, being the 12th best team in the NFL is their standard now and the results themselves tell that story. The organization is stuck in the middle class, NFL purgatory if you will. Continuing to run it back with this core is a fools errand at this point but that’s more than likely what happens. The franchise makes decisions solely based on what they think is best for the short-term, frequently avoiding the big picture of it all. You’re probably wondering, “When will things change?”
Until they get serious about prioritizing the offensive side of the football, knowing that you need a top-ten group to succeed in the current football landscape, the results will continue to be underwhelming. The quarterback, play caller and head coach are the three most important ingredients to pursuing greatness. The latter of those individuals has been unable to find solutions at those spots, not to mention the fact that the defense in which he has a heavy hand in continues to underwhelm when it matters most.
Dating back to 2016, only eight teams in the NFL have a longer playoff win drought that the Pittsburgh Steelers with the Washington Commanders and Denver Broncos, both who are still alive at the time of thise writing, among them . All of those teams have turned over their head coaching position multiple times in that same time frame. Making changes for the sake of change is bad process but it’s very fair to wonder if Mike Tomlin is still the right guy to lead the Steelers out of this cycle of mediocrity.
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