After another average season for the Steelers, once again needing help to make the playoffs, it’s evident that the “standard” has changed. This new but stale standard that for at least six of the past 13 seasons has consisted of final week scoreboard watching and hoping for a wild card birth has replaced division title and Super Bowl expectations.
Seventeen straight winning seasons putting Coach Mike Tomlin third in NFL history behind Tom Landry and Bill Belichick should not cover up the mold of Tomlin’s outfits that have no playoff wins in the last seven years, three playoff wins with only one AFC Championship appearance, four division titles and four wild card trips in the last 13 years. Yet this standard is being worn and owned comfortably by Art Rooney II and will probably be renewed again this off-season.
This after Tomlin’s reindeer games that overlooked and shunned Mason Rudolph from fairly competing to head the Steelers sleigh in 2022, and signing Mitch Trubisky and reaching for Kenny Pickett in the first round. These mental mishaps cost the Steelers division titles for the last two years, hypothetically speaking. But Tomlin isn’t into hypotheticals.
The rubber has met the road for the Pittsburgh Steelers organization. The tires are flat and need replaced, along with the pilot, or results of this nature will continue to be the new standard.
Josh McLachlan
Creighton