During his media session with beat reporters last week, Steelers owner Art Rooney II made it clear that he’s sick of losing in the playoffs.
“We’ve had enough of this. It’s time to get some wins. It’s time to take these next steps. I think there’s some urgency here, for sure,” Rooney said via audio provided by 93.7 The Fan.
In a sit-down with Bob Pompeani for KDKA, Rooney expanded on his comments and said the whole organization is feeling a sense of urgency to start winning when it matters.
“I made the comment that for a lot of us who have been in the organization for awhile, and I include Mike Tomlin in this, we are getting impatient. We want to take that next step. We want to win playoff games and go deep into the postseason,” Rooney said. “So we miss being a part of that, and that’s where the urgency is. We need to get back to playing football deep into January and hopefully February.”
The Steelers have a defensive core led by DE Cameron Heyward and OLB T.J. Watt, and yet, those two have experienced very minimal playoff success in Pittsburgh with Watt still looking for his first playoff win as a member of the Steelers. Rooney said it’s important to win for those guys and they’re just as “hungry” for a playoff win.
“We obviously have a great core group of players on defense,” Rooney said. “We gotta get those guys deep into the postseason as well. They’re just as hungry as everybody else.”
Patience should be lacking from Rooney and the organization as the Steelers haven’t had a playoff win since 2016. For a proud organization that has a legacy and culture of winning, that’s not the standard. The standard is winning Super Bowls, something James Harrison talked about on The Pat McAfee Show on Wednesday, and the Steelers haven’t gotten close to that in recent years.
It’s time for them to start winning and finding ways to do so, even if it takes a drastic measure like going after a new quarterback either this offseason or next. The Steelers have the pieces in place on defense to win now, but they’ve been lacking on the offensive side of the ball. With Arthur Smith coming in as offensive coordinator, hopefully the offense can improve enough to make the Steelers a legitimate contender.
The Steelers’ culture and standard recently has been to just have a non-losing season. You can almost mark their first playoff game down as a loss on your calendars, and that’s just not acceptable. It’s good to hear Rooney acknowledge that and harp on the point that the time is now for the Steelers to get back to being the team and organization they should be.
Watch the full interview with Rooney below.
