Pittsburgh Steelers OLB James Harrison appeared as a guest on The Pat McAfee Show today, and he said that the Steelers need to get back to their standard — and that the standard isn’t just a non-losing season.
“The expectations should never change. The expectation has become, ‘We don’t want to have a losing season.’ I’m not throwing salt or flak at anybody, but the Pittsburgh Steeler Standard is to win Lombardis,” Harrison said. “When you go into that building, there’s six of them sitting there. And right now, we’re not even winning a playoff game. I don’t think we’ve won a playoff game since 2016. So, I think we need to get back to what the standard of a Pittsburgh Steelers, legacy, the lore is. That’s just not what it is.”
Pittsburgh hasn’t won a playoff game since beating the Kansas City Chiefs in the 2016 AFC Divisional Round, and team legends like Cameron Heyward and T.J. Watt have barely experienced playoff success in Pittsburgh if at all. As Harrison said, the standard is always going to be excellence with the Steelers, and that should lead to winning Super Bowls. Pittsburgh has the most Lombardi Trophies of all time with six, but they haven’t won since 2008.
That’s way too long of a drought for a team and organization with a history as storied as the Steelers, and players like Harrison, who won two rings in Pittsburgh and made it to a third Super Bowl, know how important the culture of winning is.
Right now, it’s the biggest knock on Mike Tomlin’s resume. The lack of playoff success is wearing thin, and these days a non-losing season is all the Steelers can hang their hat on when they’re routinely losing their first postseason game year in and year out, if they’re even making the playoff field.
There’s little doubt the Steelers need to get back to what their standard is and start winning when it matters. They’re wasting away star defensive talent in Watt, Heyward and Minkah Fitzpatrick, and the Steelers are going to quickly need to figure out their quarterback situation. If Kenny Pickett can’t be the guy to lead the Steelers back to what they should be, the team needs to move on, and likely will if he doesn’t show improvement in 2024.
Harrison knows what it means to be a member of the Pittsburgh Steelers and the respect the organization has around the league. But they’re not upholding the team’s legacy with their continual playoff failure, and that needs to change now.
