The Pittsburgh Steelers are a staple franchise in the NFL. The Steelers Way has worked in the NFL for over a half-century. The organization has only employed three head coaches during that period. Chuck Noll, Bill Cowher, and Mike Tomlin have all made multiple trips to the Super Bowl. All three have won the big game at least once, with Noll the only Steelers coach to win multiple championships.
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Former Steelers owner Dan Rooney (right) along side Head Coach Mike Tomlin (middle) and former quarterback Ben Roethlisberger (left) after a victorious Super Bowl XLIII.
The Steelers Way is about doing the right thing and passing a tradition of excellence to the next generation of players. It is a tradition that flourished under Dan Rooney's stewardship. Players and coaches have embraced the philosophy in Pittsburgh for a long time. According to at least one former Steelers legend, it is dying, at least on one side of the ball.
On Monday, Ben Roethlisberger and Spencer Te'o returned to YouTube with Episode 46 of the Footbahlin with Ben Roethlisberger podcast. The Steelers are the first team in the history of the NFL to lose two games in a row to 10-loss teams, while having a winning record. It is an embarrassing statistic, and Roethlisberger did not mince words about what the issue is in Pittsburgh.
“It feels like the Steelers Way. Listen, you’ve got some great leaders on defense, don’t get me wrong, TJ [Watt] and Minkah [Fitzpatrick], but you’ve got two sides of a football,” Roethlisberger began to rant. “You don’t have it on offense. You can bring a veteran football player in, Mason Cole, Isaac [Seumalo], you can bring guys in that are veterans, but just because they are a veteran football player, doesn’t mean they are a Steeler. Like they know what it is to be a Pittsburgh Steeler.”
Steelers' Mason Cole Does Not Feel At All Responsible For Poor Play
The Steelers, under Omar Khan's guidance, were more active than ever in free agency and making trades. Kevin Colbert left the cupboard bare, so it is partly out of necessity. Still, the Steelers Way is currently being lost on offense because veterans like Diontae Johnson and Mason Cole are not leaders. Cole and Johnson can barely pass as competent components of the current offense.
“When I left, I was kind of the last guard there, obviously,” Roethlisberger concluded. “[Maurkice] Pouncey left the year before, and Dave [DeCastro] left. Those guys left, and I was kind of the last one. There just wasn’t that Steeler tradition passed down. You have it on defense, don’t get me wrong, but you don’t have it on offense right now. It’s just making it really hard. You’re not seeing, in my opinion, the toughness on offense."
The Steelers' offense has long been synonymous with smash-mouth football. Ironically, Roethlisberger has more than a little to do with abandoning the run game. The Steelers turned the offense completely over to their franchise quarterback after the Rashard Mendenhall debacle in Super Bowl XLVI. With the brief exception of Le'Veon Bell's turn as the franchise running back, the team almost entirely gave up on running the football over Roethlisberger's final five seasons.
Matt Freed / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Former Steelers General Manager, Kevin Colbert (left) and Head Coach, Mike Tomlin (right) watch a practice in Pittsburgh, PA.
Tomlin and Art Rooney II allowed Kevin Colbert to put increasingly inferior talent in front of Roethlisberger to protect him. The unintended result was that when they tried to depend on Najee Harris to shoulder the load on offense, the line was so decimated that running the ball was no longer an option. It has taken two years, and the job is not done to rebuild an offensive line capable of pushing defenses off the ball.
"I say toughness in the sense of a Steelers toughness," Roethlisberger concluded. "Who's grabbing someone by the facemask and saying, that's not what we do. Is that happening? When you are in offensive meetings or huddles, you need someone to stand up in that room on offense and be like, this isn't what it means to wear the black and gold. This isn't what's been handed down from those teams of the '70s. I understand the further you get away from that, the harder it is. Unless it's being passed down and carried the right way."
Pittsburgh's offense has undergone a significant change in personnel since Roethlisberger retired. The Steelers' first-round draft pick, Broderick Jones, has a nasty streak that will likely make him the offense's leader in short order. The elephant in the room is that Kenny Pickett should be the leader, but his poor play and inability to stay on the field has hampered any attempt to quell his playmakers' open rebellion against an ever-worsening offense.
David J. Phillip / AP Photo
Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Kenny Pickett (8) is helped off the field after an injury during the second half of an NFL football game against the Houston Texans, Sunday, Oct. 1, 2023, in Houston.
Tomlin's reputation for maximizing player performance may be as simple as the veteran leadership on the team. The defense is well respected because it has leaders, but the offense is in disarray, and the head coach seems clueless about how to solve it. Khan and Andy Weidl can import real solutions, but if no one is going to guide them on how to represent the black and gold, the elusive Steelers' toughness will not surface on offense.
Roethlisberger correctly points out that the Steelers need to embrace an identity on offense. The problem is that the current offensive coaching staff does not know what that is, and the current quarterbacks on the roster can't help them define it. The Steelers can sign or draft a new quarterback in 2024, but it will not matter until they embrace what it means to wear the uniform in Pittsburgh and weed out the veteran impostors that Colbert imported.
What do you think, Steeler Nation? Is Roethlisberger on the money with his assessment? Please comment below or on my Twitter/X: @thebubbasq.
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