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: Which position group on the 90-man roster are you most comfortable with right now if the season began today (and today were September)?
The start of the new league year is set to begin next week, so things are really about to get underway. Free agency will begin imminently, giving us a much clearer picture of what the Steelers will look like by the time we head into the 2020 NFL Draft.
As goes without saying, the roster is going to be reshaped in a number of different ways not just between now and the start of the season, but really between now and May, with dozens of players coming and going. Some will be re-signed. Some will be cut. Some will be lost in free agency. Perhaps one or two will be added from the outside. And of course perhaps a dozen or more rookie will be added through the draft and college free agency.
And so the question I present today is this: if the season were to begin today—or rather, if today were the start of the regular season in September—which position group on the roster would you be most comfortable with as is? For the purposes of this question, I am assuming that Ben Roethlisberger and other injured players have recovered as projected.
In light of that, I might in fact say the quarterback position, with the provision of Roethlisberger’s health. We already have four quarterbacks who were on the roster in 2019, and it’s been declared essentially that they will not be adding to it. My runner-up answers would be a tie between cornerback and inside linebacker, even with the projected release of Mark Barron.
