Tim Benz: Plenty for Steelers to fix that Ben Roethlisberger can't
When assessing the 2020 Steelers offense, the easy thing to say is, “Ben Roethlisberger will be back, and that’ll fix everything.”
Given how good the defense could be again, what a dream scenario that would be!
Too bad it isn’t close to true.
Yes, Roethlisberger will fix a lot. Red-zone proficiency should improve. The threat of his arm will back some defenders out of the box and open up the running game. His ability to make pre-snap reads at the line of scrimmage will put the offensive line in better protections, not to mention his ability to get rid of the ball quickly if needed. He will diagnose open receivers more often than Mason Rudolph or Devlin Hodges. The playbook will expand.
Not to mention, you know, the physical act of throwing of the football. That matters, too.
There are some things even Roethlisberger can’t fix, though. At Mike Tomlin’s season-ending news conference Tuesday, I asked the Steelers coach which of those things are the most concerning and need to be addressed this offseason.
“I don’t have the answer to that as I stand here right now,” Tomlin replied. “You go into it ready to peel back all the layers and analyze every aspect of play. Some of it relates to Ben and his presence and you understand what (that) means. But, largely, you are just analyzing… it.
“We’ve got areas to improve across the board positionally, schematically. I look forward to do so as it relates to Ben, and as it doesn’t relate to Ben, as well.”
Well, let’s get to the stuff that “doesn’t relate to Ben.” Because that will be the task for Tomlin, offensive coordinator Randy Fichtner and general manager Kevin Colbert to fix even if Big Ben comes back at 100%.
He can’t keep James Conner and Vance McDonald healthy: Conner was limited to 10 games this year because of injuries. The running back’s productivity dipped from 1,470 total yards from scrimmage to 715, partially because of that fact.
“He didn’t spend a lot of time on the field healthy,” Tomlin said. “But that’s as much a part of the game as blocking and tackling. We’ll assess it with him in an effort to minimize it, to what degree we can, moving forward.”
How they do that? I have no idea. And right now, I bet they don’t have one either.
Same thing for McDonald. The tight end always appears to be a viable threat when healthy and when he is targeted. But he missed two full games and portions of others due to injury this season. He exceeded three catches just twice all year, failed to score a touchdown in the last eight weeks, and averaged only 19.5 yards per game.
He can’t make some of his skill-position players more complete: Benny Snell looks like a good between-the-tackles running back. He simply may not have game-breaking speed or pass-catching ability to be a full-time starter.
Roethlisberger can’t force James Washington to be 3 inches taller or a few steps faster.
And — perhaps most importantly — Roethlisberger can’t turn JuJu Smith-Schuster into Antonio Brown.
He can’t make his receivers hold onto the ball: Drops and fumbles killed the Steelers this year, particularly in losses to the Seattle Seahawks, New York Jets and Baltimore Ravens… twice.
The Steelers’ 11 fumbles tied for eighth most in the league. Four of those were committed by receivers. A fifth came from Jaylen Samuels on a pass play.
The team was only tagged with 19 drops, which feels generous to me. But a few of those drops — like from Smith-Schuster against the Indianapolis Colts and Donte Moncrief against the Seahawks — ended up in the arms of defensive players as interceptions, or occurred on possession downs that would have kept drives alive.
He can’t make his offensive line younger: Some of that will take care of itself. Ramon Foster had a very good Steelers career. But he will be 34 next year and may have been around at least one year too long already. Look for Matt Feiler to move to left guard or B.J. Finney to be a full-time starter at that position.
Alejandro Villanueva will be 32 and was better last year. Maurkice Pouncey has 10 years under his belt. He’s still good but not as elite as he used to be.
“I’m always interested in adding depth and competition in any position group,” Tomlin said when asked about the offensive line.
If the Steelers had their full complement of draft choices or more cap room to play with, there may be a more significant attempt to do that. But now it feels like only minor adjustments may occur in that regard.
He can’t be his own backup: Unless Roethlisberger’s doctors figured out a way to clone him while he was in surgery, this could be a problem again in 2020.
On Tuesday, Tomlin deflected frequent questions about the prospect of signing a veteran free agent backup for Roethlisberger.
Tomlin said he is “comfortable with Mason Rudolph” as Roethlisberger’s backup.
Well, someone should be, I guess.
If Roethlisberger should get hurt again for an extended period, and Rudolph takes over again, Rudolph better be… better. Or else 2020 could be a replay of 2019.
If these problems don’t get repaired, it will be up to the defense to fix everything else that Roethlisberger can’t.
Again.
And by early December of this year, we saw how that turned out.
Tim Benz is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Tim at tbenz@triblive.com or via X. All tweets could be reposted. All emails are subject to publication unless specified otherwise.
Remove the ads from your TribLIVE reading experience but still support the journalists who create the content with TribLIVE Ad-Free.