The regular season marks the culmination of an extensive investigation into who your team will be that year. By this point, you’ve gone through free agency, the draft, training camp, and the preseason. You feel good in your decisions insofar as you can create clarity without having played meaningful games. But there are still plenty of uncertainties that remain, whether at the start of the regular season or the end, and new ones continually develop over time.
That is what I will look to address in our Buy or Sell series. In each installment, I will introduce a topic statement and weigh some of the arguments for either buying it (meaning that you agree with it or expect it to be true) or selling it (meaning you disagree with it or expect it to be false).
The range of topics will be intentionally wide, from the general to the specific, from the immediate to that in the far future. And as we all tend to have an opinion on just about everything, I invite you to share your own each morning on the topic statement of the day.
Topic Statement: Chris Morgan is making a convincing argument to be the Steelers’ next offensive line coach.
Explanation: One game into his potentially two-game tenure as the Steelers’ head offensive line coach, the team rushed for 190 yards with a game-clinching touchdown. We don’t know much about Chris Morgan, but we do know thanks to J.C. Hassenauer that he does do things a bit differently, including getting more position groups involved in the blocking conversation.
Buy:
The Steelers never looked really even that close to as good as they did on Monday night in their efforts to run the ball, particularly with respect to the interior offensive line and their ability to pretty consistently generate push.
The Cleveland Browns actually have a good defensive line against the run, but they didn’t look like it on Monday night thanks to Morgan’s group. And by Morgan’s group, I’m also talking about the wide receivers and tight ends, who did their part in executing this run game, as well.
Sell:
We’re talking about one game here. it’s just as likely that the Steelers struggle, as they have for most of the season, to run the ball in the season finale. They’re certainly not going to have another game against the Baltimore Ravens in the finale like they did on Monday against the Browns.
Morgan is the beneficiary of a season’s worth of growth and improvement, as well, especially from Najee Harris. And he didn’t have to deal with Kendrick Green at center, which was an addition by subtraction benefit.
Morgan might be competent, but the Steelers need somebody next season and beyond for their offensive line room who goes beyond that. They need another Mike Munchak, somebody of his stature. Maybe even the real Munchak, if the Broncos dump their staff this offseason. We should know by now not to make too much of small sample sizes, especially when there are other variables at play.
