The Pittsburgh Steelers’ 2021 season is over, already eliminated from the postseason after suffering a 42-21 loss at the hands of Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs. They just barely made the postseason with a 9-7-1 record and a little help from their friends.
This is an offseason of major change, with the retirement of Ben Roethlisberger, the possible retirement of general manager Kevin Colbert, and the decisions about the futures of many important players to be made, such as Joe Haden, Stephon Tuitt, JuJu Smith-Schuster, and others.
Aside from exploring their options at the quarterback position, the top global priority, once again, figures to be addressing the offensive line, which they did not do quite adequately enough a year ago. Dan Moore Jr. looks like he may have a future as a full-time starter, but Kendrick Green was clearly not ready. Chukwuma Okorafor is heading into free agency, as is Trai Turner.
These are the sorts of topics 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. There is rarely a concrete answer, but this is your venue for exploring the topics we present through all their uncertainty.
Question: How will the Steelers pay tribute to Dwayne Haskins this season?
Tragedy struck the Steelers organization over the weekend. While working out with teammates down in Florida, fourth-year quarterback Dwayne Haskins was struck and killed by a vehicle at the incredibly young age of 24.
Originally signed in January of 2021, Haskins spent all of the following season with the Steelers, serving as the number three quarterback and building relationships, within the locker room, within the organization, and within the community.
Regardless of what his playing status may ultimately have been come September 2022, there’s no question that Haskins left an impact on many people in and around the Steelers facility. And I believe the organization wanted to afford him every opportunity to reach his full potential.
The world will never see the best of Dwayne Haskins now, for reasons that remain not fully understood. But what man he was proved to be enough to touch so many people around him, which we unfortunately are only beginning to fully understand in the aftermath of his death.
Under such tragic circumstances, it is undoubtedly inevitable that the Steelers as an organization will find some way to pay tribute to Haskins during the 2022 season. A helmet decal tends to be a standard honorific when a member of the organization is lost, but these are different circumstances—a player on the active roster losing his life at such an incredibly young age. I’m sure a number of players will pay their own personal tributes on game days, even if it means risking fines for doing so.
