Tim Benz: Offseason tells us how owner Art Rooney II feels about what will fix Steelers' postseason slump

In an offseason that could’ve led to significant upheaval for the Pittsburgh Steelers, the franchise instead appears to be an example of “the more things change, the more they stay the same.”

Actually, they are the very personification of that notion.

Steelers general manager Kevin Colbert retired. Vice president of football and business administration Omar Khan was promoted to replace him.

Defensive coordinator Keith Butler retired. Secondary coach Teryl Austin was promoted to replace him.

Quarterback Ben Roethlisberger retired during an offseason where quarterback movement was abundant throughout the NFL. Yet the candidates to replace him are his former backup (Mason Rudolph), Buffalo’s former backup (Mitch Trubisky) and the first-round rookie who played college football next door (Kenny Pickett).

The franchise decided to extend Chuks Okorafor at right tackle. It’s retaining and likely promoting Ahkello Witherspoon at cornerback after letting Joe Haden leave. And the club decided to replace Terrell Edmunds at safety by making a splash in free agency and replacing him with … well … Terrell Edmunds.

Funny how that one worked out.

That’s to say nothing of giving Matt Canada another shot at offensive coordinator after his unit last year was a dud and never flinching behind head coach Mike Tomlin despite seeing nine of his last 11 seasons end without a playoff win.

I suppose you could say that the team did reconfigure the front office to a degree by bringing in Andy Weidl as assistant general manager from Philadelphia’s front office and director of pro scouting Sheldon White from Washington’s staff.

However, we should point out that Weidl began his career with the Steelers in 1998 as a player personnel assistant and White’s son (Cody) is a player on the team.

Also, Colbert’s son, Dan, got promoted to director of amateur scouting.

If you haven’t figured it out by now, this is me belaboring the point without directly saying it. So maybe I should get to that.

This entire offseason has made one thing abundantly obvious. Whatever has been leading to playoff frustration for the Steelers since 2010, owner Art Rooney II is completely convinced that the Steelers themselves aren’t to blame for it.

It’s just been … something else. Every time.

If Rooney thought there was something significant to change, he would’ve done so this year. Since so little appears to have changed with the organizational direction, though, what other message should fans and media take from those actions of steady promotion and in-house retention?

To be fair, Brian Flores, James Daniels, Mason Cole and Myles Jack are nice chess pieces to acquire. But adding a defensive assistant, a pair of solid interior linemen and another former linebacker from Jacksonville isn’t exactly tectonic-plate-shifting movement in the NFL.

Sure, the Steelers’ way of doing things has always been good enough to keep them at .500 or better throughout Tomlin’s 15-year tenure. They are always in the mix for the playoffs. But since their last Super Bowl appearance in 2010, the franchise has fallen well short of meeting those lofty “standards” Rooney and Tomlin so frequently cite.

Maybe Rooney is falling back on the Ron Hextall school of thought. Remember last week when the Penguins GM simply explained away the Penguins’ recent postseason failures by chalking them up to “circumstances.”

Yeah. I suppose the Steelers have had plenty of “circumstances” themselves. Antonio Brown got knocked out in the 2015 playoffs. Le’Veon Bell left injured during the 2016 AFC Championship Game. The Jesse James call. The bad calls in New Orleans in 2018. Roethlisberger’s injury in 2019. Covid in 2020.

I guess no other teams in the NFL that managed to win a playoff game over the last five years have had to deal with “circumstances,” huh?

Maybe Rooney should’ve tried to hire Hextall away from Fenway Sports Group and Khan could’ve jumped over to the Penguins.

Hey, don’t knock that idea, Omar. That NHL salary cap is a heckuva lot easier to manage.

The path through those “circumstances,” though, is apparently clear to Rooney. We should see it through his hiring procedure and the desire to keep so many of his current employees.

He’s steadfastly reinforcing the tenants of how his family’s business has operated since it began having success in the early 1970s.

Consistency. Stability. Trust. Long-range team building. An emphasis on the draft, and targeted supplemental free-agent spending.

Now it’s time to prove that philosophy is still capable of postseason success. At least more than what we’ve seen in Pittsburgh for most of the last 11 years.