The Pittsburgh Steelers have a major set challenges facing them for the offseason of 2019 after they managed to miss the postseason for the first time in five years. The failure has been taken especially grievously because of the fact that the team was in position to control their own fate even for homefield advantage with six games remaining before dropping four games.
And so they find themselves getting the exit meeting process underway at least two weeks earlier than they have had to in years, since they have made it to at least the Divisional Round since 2015. Hopefully they used those extra two weeks with purpose.
While we might not know all the details about what goes on between Head Coach Mike Tomlin and his players during these exit meetings, we do know how we would conduct those meetings if they were let up to us. So here are the Depot’s exit meetings for the Steelers’ roster following the 2018 season.
Player: Terrell Edmunds
Position: Strong Safety
Experience: 1 Year
Once a rarity, it’s now become commonplace for the Steelers to have rookies in the starting lineup, even on the defensive side of the football. The past two seasons, in fact, have seen their first two wall-to-wall rookie defensive starters since Kendrell Bell many years ago.
It was T.J. Watt in 2017, who developed into a Pro Bowl player last year. In 2018, it was safety Terrell Edmunds, though that wasn’t the plan. Free agent signing Morgan Burnett was supposed to start, but did not due to injuries, outside of the second game of the season, during which Edmunds still played and rotated.
And if we’re being honest, he started before he was ready. I think even he would admit that. He was an underclassman who was overcoming an injury during his final collegiate season and into the draft process, so he was delayed as it is.
But he did have the advantage of the knowledge of the NFL life, because his father and his older brother had already gone through it before him, so he had that leg up about what to expect and was able to use it to his advantage.
And the important thing is that he improved over the course of the year in virtually every facet, even in terms of his tackling. He missed a handful of tackles early on, but cleaned that up as the season went along.
His read and react time also significantly improved and allowed him to get closer and closer to plays. He did intercept one pass and recorded a sack, and has the athleticism to become a playmaker. But his second season in 2019 will be a much better tell about who he is going to be in the future. Obviously he will be in the starting lineup, so we will find out one way or another.
