By: Zach Herbaugh
It has been 12 years since the Pittsburgh Steelers have hoisted a Lombardy trophy and 10 years since they have played in a Super Bowl. We have witnessed three different presidential elections, a complete economic recession, and three international wars since Mike Tomlin won his first and only Super Bowl as a head coach. Now with another presidential election months away and an impending economic recession, can the Steelers finally bring another ring back to Pittsburgh?
The 2000s were dominated by defensively rich Super Bowl victors. From the Baltimore Ravens and Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the earliest part of the decade to the Steelers on the back-end, defense ruled supreme. Offenses were still in a run-heavy mindset and elite defenses were dominating with a physical front seven. The Steelers built their dominating defense by hitting on late-round picks and undrafted players (Brett Keisel, Larry Foote, Ike Taylor, and James Harrison) and supplementing holes in the defense by making successful free agent signings (James Farrior, Ryan Clark). However, with the evolution of the quarterback at the collegiate level, pro-style offenses began to adopt the current pass-happy format that has become so popularized in the NFL.
The 2010s became the decade of the offense and the Steelers adopted the mindset of building their team around offense. It was hard to argue with the logic of having a two-time Super Bowl-winning quarterback going into his prime, an offensive line that was constantly improving and a receiving group that was easily regarded as a perennial top 10 unit. Couple that with a surging running back from Michigan State and you were looking at one of the best offenses in football. The Steelers continued to try to build their defense using their first-round pick each year on defense from 2014 to 2019. Unfortunately, a few poor selections in the first-round prevented the defense from taking that necessary step to becoming elite. The offense-dominating Steelers of the 2010s only made one Super Bowl appearance (‘10) and two AFC championship game appearances (’10,’16).
With the ushering of a new decade, Tomlin and co. have created a team that will heavily rely on their defense to create pressure, and their offense to play complementary football – a strategy that brought Tomlin his only Super Bowl victory. The current defense has been crafted in a bit more conventional way with stock-piling first-round draft picks that are entering their primes and adding key secondary pieces that have played up to or above their contract expectations. The defense that was a middle-of-the-pack unit throughout the primary portion of the 2010s has boosted itself into a dominating unit that mirrors the offense-dominated Steelers of the past decade. Tomlin was forced to do his famous “look in the mirror” reflection early last year with the loss of Ben Roethlisberger in week 2 and he finally realized that his defense will be the backbone of this team for the foreseeable future.
So what should realistic expectations be for the next decade? It’s hard to argue that there are a couple of offensive juggernauts in the AFC. Other teams across the AFC went heavy on offense in the most recent draft and off-season to try to compete with the Kansas City Chiefs and Ravens, but as we have seen so many times in the playoffs, an offense can have a bad day and a season can end as quickly as it started. Steelers fans should remain optimistic that this defense will provide a successful building block over the next ten years. We should remain hopeful that this defense will not only bring us numerous division titles but at least one Super Bowl title. We will have to work through the growing pains of a new quarterback, but that will not be before #7 brings us Super Bowl #7. The next ten years look extremely bright behind this star-studded defense, so in a time that is hard to stay positive, stay enthusiastic and reminisce about that dominating defense of the 2000s that is being recreated now.
What are your expectations for the Steelers defense in 2020? Sound off in the comments below!
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