Steelers' Offensive Management For Post-Ben Roethlisberger Era Is A Cautionary Tale For Rest Of The NFL

Fans of the Pittsburgh Steelers went from having hope on both sides of the ball to wanting the head coach fired because of the amount of control he has in both phases. The highest paid defense in the league played terribly since the bye week, and the offense went stagnant and predictable during the season-ending five-game losing streak. Another late-season collapse has left the team with more questions than they had entering the 2024 campaign. Based on recent years, it does not seem like most of those questions will get answered anytime soon. 

Joe Starkey made his usual appearance on 93.7 The Fan to talk about where everything went wrong. For him, it was when they tried to move out of the Killer B's era and into the 2020s.

"The plan, clearly, was to supplement a highly paid and hopefully elite defense with a young, dynamic offense," explained Starkey. "That's why you've seen five straight years of an offensive guy getting picked first. That's why you've seen 11 of their last 16 picks in rounds one through three, offensive guys... I think we can now say that that mission failed so miserably with Kevin Colbert involved, Omar Khan involved, and Mike Tomlin involved. It's done. That era is done. This offense, with most of those guys either leaving now or gone..."

When the Steelers had the Killer B's, life on offense couldn't be better. Even when they had slow starts, it was almost assured that the offense would wake up thanks to one or more big plays from Ben Roethlisberger with Antonio Brown making circus catches. The Steelers don't have that luxury anymore, especially with an overhauled quarterback room that could possibly get completely overhauled again. 

Starkey continued on, calling the whole operation arrogant, from the draft picks that the front office made to the offensive coordinators that Mike Tomlin hired. It was a total failure that may be used by other teams as a handbook of how to not retool a team or rebuild after the franchise quarterback retires.

"It's just been a study in mismanagement on how to go into life after a legendary quarterback. Just a study in rampant mismanagement."

Obviously, it's hard to operate in a passing league without a high-end quarterback. It's even harder when you use "luxury picks" as opposed to addressing the real needs of the team or even looking for the next franchise quarterback, which leads to cheap attempts of fixes.

Steelers May Be Forced To Restart Their Offensive Rebuild

As mentioned earlier, there Steelers' current entire quarterbacks room is set to be free agents, and none of them have proven themselves to be a long-term option in Pittsburgh. Najee Harris, the first-round running back, is expected to hit the open market in March of 2025 as well. George Pickens, the only reliable receiver on the team, may be traded for being a distraction and a problem in the locker room. 

That's not including those that have already left the team. The 2023 quarterbacks were all sent away for different reasons, which makes it possible that this is the second straight year where the team has to bring in three new quarterbacks entirely. Kenny Pickett, specifically, was traded away after year two due to his unwillingness to not be the starter.

On top of that, Offensive Coordinator Arthur Smith has interviewed with two other teams to possibly be the head coach. That would mean Tomlin would have to search for another one. With how meddlesome he can be, it could be challenging. Even if he does hire a quality offensive mind, there's no guarantee that he would be able to run things his way with Tomlin breathing down his neck.

What do you think about Starkey ripping the Steelers for gross mismanagement of the offense for the post-Roethlisberger era? Let us know in the comments.

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