On The Pat McAfee Show today, former Indianapolis Colts head coach Chuck Pagano was a guest, and he addressed former Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger’s comments about the team losing the “Steeler Way.” Pagano thinks that Mike Tomlin should have a sit-down with Roethlisberger, but that Roethlisberger wouldn’t be making those comments if the Steelers had a good quarterback.
After McAfee asked him how Tomlin should address Roethlisberger called out the Steelers’ offense for not having any leaders, Pagano pushed back.
“Why are you gonna address it? The first thing I do is pick up a phone and have a, you need to come down here and have a sit-down with Ben,” Pagano said. “He finally went to one game right, he’s been to one game. If you’re here Wednesday, Thursday you’re at practice, you’re this, you’re that, you’re hanging out, you’ve got a feel for our locker room, you know exactly what’s going on. I mean, it’s easy for us all to sit back and look.”
Ultimately, Pagano said Pittsburgh’s issues come down to not having a good enough quarterback.
“If you have a quarterback, he’s not saying shit. Nobody’s saying nothing. You’re winning football games with this football team.”
Pagano said it’s hard to win when you don’t have a good enough quarterback. It’s been clear that neither Kenny Pickett nor Mitch Trubisky have been all that good for Pittsburgh this season, and it’s one of the reasons why the offense has struggled so much.
The other side of the coin is that a better quarterback could in turn be a better leader. Roethlisberger’s main point was it was the guys on the offensive side of the ball who haven’t stepped up to lead and get a unit that’s been abysmal all season turned around, and given how they’ve played lately, that does seem to be the case. But the talent issue is a major factor, and nobody would be concerned about the Steelers’ culture if they were coming off back-to-back wins and were 9-4. A better quarterback beats the Cardinals and Patriots and gets this team there, instead of languishing at 7-6 and at risk of missing the playoffs.
The larger issue is just that the Steelers’ offense isn’t good right now. They don’t seem to have a strong leadership base, and they just aren’t very good at the quarterback position, which happens to be the most important position in football. The conversation around this team is completely different if the Steelers are a better team and have a better quarterback, and the lack of production they’ve gotten at the position is something they’ll need to figure out sooner rather than later.
