Just a few short months ago, there was a lot of excitement regarding the Pittsburgh Steelers and the work that GM Omar Khan did in free agency, the draft, and via trades, reshaping the roster in the blink of an eye.
It happened to be the busiest offseason ever in franchise history, to boot.
Most importantly, the quarterback room seemed upgraded with the additions of Russell Wilson and Justin Fields as the Steelers moved on from Kenny Pickett, Mitch Trubisky, and Mason Rudolph.
The arrow was very clearly pointing up and people were even talking about the Steelers being a legitimate playoff team, one that could go on a run with the defense that they have.
But now, after one poor performance in the preseason against the Buffalo Bills, in which everything that could have gone wrong did, the Steelers are a team on which seemingly everyone is down and, in some instances, out on.
That includes radio host Zach Gelb. During his radio show Tuesday afternoon, Gelb stated that the Steelers will be “painful to watch this year” with the QB situation in place with Wilson and Fields.
“It was John Madden who said, if you got two quarterbacks, you have none. Man, Pittsburgh. Everyone said, ‘Oh, this room’s really good. Oh, this room is really improved.’ Yes, it improved, but it’s still not a good room. And as we enter this season, the late great John Madden couldn’t be more right. Couldn’t be more right,” Gelb said of the Steelers’ quarterback room, according to video via his Twitter page. “The Steelers quarterback situation is going to be a painful one to watch this year. And if the offensive line continues to look like this and truly has not got that much better as people praised it to be, or made it out to be, whew, this could be the year Mike Tomlin’s under .500.
“That team is really good on paper in terms of the defense. …I would be surprised, I’d be mildly surprised if the Steelers make the postseason this year, and maybe this is the year where it starts to go the other way, where they start to actually reflect the problems that are happening with this team.”
It’s funny, just a month ago, when San Francisco wide receiver Brandon Aiyuk requested a trade, Gelb was singing the praises of the Steelers’ offense, stating that it was ready-made to plug in an Aiyuk and be a Super Bowl-caliber team with “better” quarterback play, meaning he believed in Wilson and Fields.
But now, after Wilson suffered a calf injury early in training camp, which had him limited, and then the poor showing from the offense as a whole against the Bills, it’s a completely different tune.
Now, it will be “painful” to watch the Steelers this season with the quarterback situation.
Granted, Saturday’s game against the Bills was hard to watch. But the playbook and play calls were limited. The offensive line couldn’t protect anyone, and taking any sort of stance one way or another on Wilson or Fields after Saturday’s game seems a bit ridiculous, as they were under siege from the start.
Those types of hot takes in sports talk radio sell, though.
It’s the same thing over and over again with the Steelers and the conversation, though. Bad quarterbacks, this is the year Tomlin has a losing season, they’ll bottom out, blah blah blah.
It doesn’t happen. This team still has an elite-level defense, and Arthur Smith is a very respected coordinator who will figure out his offense’s strengths and weaknesses and work around them. Patience is required, though.
The only thing that might be painful with the Steelers this season is hearing these hot takes in the negative direction one year after all the positive takes in the preseason that eventually were all for naught once the season started. You’d think a lesson would be learned there.
Guess not.
