The Pittsburgh Steelers fired offensive line coach Jack Bicknell Jr. on Friday after just one season with the team, but according to Gerry Dulac of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, there was writing on the wall for several weeks that the change was coming.
According to Dulac’s sources, offensive assistant Shaun Sarrett was more involved with the coaching of the offensive line on a day-to-day basis for the second half of the season and Bicknell’s role slowly diminished in the process.
Over the course of the last seven games of the season, quarterback Ben Roethlisberger was sacked just seven times after being sacked 36 times in the first 9 games.
In addition to the sacks being down in the second half of the season, the Steelers offense rushed for just over four yards per carry in the final five games of the season after averaging just 3.27 yards in their first 11 games.
When you factor in that both Mike Adams and Marcus Gilbert certainly didn’t make progress in 2013 like many hoped that they would and that the outside zone blocking scheme was barely used, it all likely adds up to the organization likely thinking that a change was needed.
Team president Art Rooney II will be addressing the media over the course of the next several weeks and it will be interesting to hear his thoughts on why the change was made.
