The Pittsburgh Steelers are now into the offseason, following a year in which they had high hopes for Super Bowl success, but ultimately fell short of even reaching the postseason at 8-8. It was a tumultuous season, both on the field and within the roster, and the months to follow figure to have some drama as well, especially in light of the team’s failure to improve upon the year before.
The team made some bold moves over the course of the past year, and some areas of the roster look quite a bit different than they did a year ago, or even at the start of the regular season. Whether due to injuries or otherwise, a lot has transpired, and we’re left to wonder how much more will change prior to September.
How will Ben Roethlisberger’s rehab progress as he winds toward recovery from an elbow injury that cost him almost the entire season? What about some of the key young players, some of whom have already impressed, others still needing quite a bit of growth? Will there be changes to the coaching staff? The front office? Who will they not retain in free agency, and whom might they bring in?
These are the sorts of questions among many others that we have been exploring on a daily basis and will continue to do so. Football has become a year-round pastime and there is always a question to be asked, though there is rarely a concrete answer, as I’ve learned in my years of doing this.
Question: If you were a mid-tier NFL player, would you vote to approve of the new CBA based on what you know about it?
I thought this might be an interesting question to pose to the crowd, and I’m hoping that we can do this without controversy. I’m asking you to answer this question as though you are an NFL player and not just a fan whose dream it would be to play, just thrilled to have the opportunity to play and to make any type of six-figure salary.
Say you’re somebody like a Ramon Foster or a Mark Barron or a Vance McDonald. You’re not a superstar, but you’re not on the fringes of the roster, either. Whether you were a high draft pick or not, you have established yourself over the course of your career as a starter and have earned several millions of dollars over the course of that time, though not perhaps $100 million.
What would you, as this person, think about this new CBA, which asks you to subject your body to further punishment in what is arguably the most violent and dangerous major professional sport?
It’s been widely held that the players were already shortchanged during the last CBA. Are there enough advancements in what the players are getting (and this is very important to remember, we’re talking about this relative to what the owners are getting in return) in comparison to last time, relative to the increase in workload?
