The Steelers are now back at the UPMC Rooney Sports Complex, facing down a long regular season that looks a lot more promising given how things have gone leading up to it. Finishing just above .500 last year, they anticipate being able to compete with any team in the league this season with second-year QB Kenny Pickett leading the way.
They’ve done a great deal to address what they identified as their shortcomings during the offseason, which included addressing the offensive and defensive lines as well as the secondary and the inside linebacker room, which is nearly entirely different from last year. The results have been positive so far.
Even well into the regular season and beyond, there are going to be plenty of questions that need answered. When will the core rookies get to play, or even start? Is the depth sufficient where they upgraded? Can they stand toe-to-toe with the Bengals and the other top teams in the league? We’ll try to frame the conversation in relevant ways as long as you stick with us throughout the season, as we have for many years.
Question: What does it mean that RB Najee Harris wasn’t voted to be a captain?
Head coach Mike Tomlin made such a big deal about Najee Harris’ budding leadership acumen last year in just his second season and about how significant it was that he was voted captain so early on in his career. His co-captain on offense was QB Mitch Trubisky, a recent free agent who was to open the season as starter.
This year only second-year QB Kenny Pickett represents the offense as captain. Harris was not voted to be co-captain. The question logically follows: why not? What does it mean that from one year to the next he was not given the same honor?
The big difference between this season and last is obvious and significant: the Steelers have a franchise quarterback now in Pickett. They didn’t have one then. At least, they didn’t have one that they were confident had already shown the ability to be the franchise quarterback.
Yet former QB Ben Roethlisberger was very frequently voted as a co-captain, first with WR Hines Ward and then later with C Maurkice Pouncey, so it’s not as though there is deep-rooted precedent that whenever the Steelers have a franchise quarterback, he has to stand alone as captain.
Roethlisberger was voted captain 13 times, including co-captain seven times. Ward was captain in 2007 the year before Roethlisberger earned his first captaincy, much the way Harris was captain the year before Pickett earned his first captaincy, but Ward remained a co-captain for the next four years until he retired.
Does this say more about Harris or Pickett? Pickett has been universally recognized as not just the offense’s leader but the team’s leader as a whole. Harris doesn’t appear to have been nearly as front and center in a take-charge fashion this offseason, either. But I’m certain that at least some will have more to read into this than that.
