Steelers Spin: The State Of The Steelers

I’ve been hiding away in caves of deep depression since the Pittsburgh Steelers ended their National Football League season with a humiliating loss by the score of 6-30 to the Houston Texans.

Did I miss anything?

The Steelers getting clobbered in the first round of the playoffs? Wasn’t surprised. They’ve been only good enough to barely get in for years now.

Let down. High and dry.

A burned-out Coach Mike Tomlin walking away from his head coaching position? Wasn’t surprised.

Great coach and leader of men! Always will be in my mind. But he’s had that faraway look in his eyes for a few years now. Sometimes you just run out of answers, or the will to find them in other sharp minds.

Still, I’m extraordinarily grateful for the Mike Tomlin era, and the Bill Cowher era, and the Chuck Noll era…all the while feeling incredibly refreshed as a Pittsburgh Steelers fan.

I love the selection of Ol’ Man Mike McCarthy as our head coach in times such as these. Sure, he’s much grayer than your average Steelers head coach hire of the past five decades. But he’s so excited about coaching his hometown Steelers that he looks like a five-year-old sneaking out early Christmas morning to open presents under the tree.

I want him to win. Don’t you? We’ll forgive him for coaching the Dallas Cowboys. Everyone loses their way sometimes in their lives.

And it makes for a perfect storyline. This is the head coach who snuffed out the Steelers in Super Bowl XLV. I continue to argue that part of Pittsburgh’s soul leaked out on the field after that loss. McCarthy might be the one destined to return it.

Kind of like Captain Jack Sparrow needing to find the Dead Man’s Chest to recover his heart. We need our heart back again.

Maybe we’re just a few beats away. One of the NFL’s oldest rosters just got an infusion of 10 new young bucks in the draft. Several of the draft mistakes of the past few years will be replaced. There is nothing wrong with some re-do’s here and there.

This is one of my favorite free agency years ever. Rico Dowdle is an unbelievable talent who has only been held back by his Scarlet Letter status as an undrafted free agent. Both he and Michael Pittman are going to make Pittsburgh seem to be the home where they’ve always belonged. Jamel Dean adds speed to the secondary and could be just starting to peak in his career.

What a performance the city of Pittsburgh put on for this year’s NFL Draft. Epic! I’m thrilled for the Rooney family and everyone involved.

I did NOT want a first-round draft pick to be used on a wide receiver. I’m grateful for the Philadelphia Eagles doing us so wrong.

Hail to the thief.

We need big men in order to be the Big Men on the Campus.

A dominant offensive line. An excellent defensive line. Count me in.

Drafting a quarterback with serious upside in the third round? Well done. After all, I’m the same one who wrote back in 2018 that we should use ALL our draft picks until we discover The One.

You should have listened to me.

If you’re worried about all this glee getting in the way of proper analysis, fear you not. I don’t see us winning any Super Bowls for several years. We’ve been drowning for too long in the deep waters of selling out the future for desperate pursuits of one last year of glory.

The future has been mortgaged for too long. If we come up too fast, we’ll get a bad case of the bends.

Let’s be patient. Build it right.

But I’m hopeful again that we can start tracking on a longer-visioned plan to rebuild this aging infrastructure so we can be dominant once again.

At least it’s a nice dream.

No. We’re far from perfect. But we won’t have to hear about records for consecutive non-losing seasons while enduring non-Super Bowl-winning ones.

We won’t have to hear about the Steelers’ long-kept tradition of keeping head coaches on the job forever…because this one won’t have as long a career expiration date.

Should we keep bending the knee to the past glory of an indecisive future Hall of Fame quarterback?

No. Move along. Move along. If we don’t have our quarterback of the future on our current roster, let’s not wait until the future to find out.

Let’s not reload…let’s rebuild. Something great. Something memorable. Before our memories of Pittsburgh Steelers greatness fade.

I haven’t been this excited about the Pittsburgh Steelers in quite a few years. Something about being on a new path. A new vision.

I’m also legitimately pumped to be able to enjoy Coach Tomlin in the NFL commentary booth. As good as he was as a coach for the Steelers, I think he’ll be legendary in his new role of talking up the game.

Can’t wait!

So much unknown. So much to be discovered. Yet, everything in it’s right place.