The 2024 National Football League season is already underway, and the Pittsburgh Steelers will get to finally join in the fun when they play against the Atlanta Falcons in their season opener on Sunday.
The league schedules are put together *wink, wink* randomly…with the exception of a few marketing professionals applying their fingers on the scales. So it shouldn’t be any surprise that the Steelers’ new offensive coordinator, Arthur Smith, is being asked to dance in front of the many tens of thousands who have chased him out of town recently as their head coach.
There is a healthy minority of Steelers fans who would have wished a similar fate for their own head coach. But instead, Mike Tomlin enters this season with the full confidence of the Rooney family, having received yet another contract extension during the offseason.
For Steelers Nation this year, the season launches with a growingly familiar unease. That is one of rather low expectations. Apparently, in Pittsburgh, despite what we’ve been told, we don’t reload; we rebuild. And those construction signs and detours have been in place for too long now.
There was a time in a galaxy not so far away when Pittsburgh was expected to make the playoffs each year and be a threat to go far, but those days are rather small apparitions in the rearview mirror.
Instead, the most sober citizens of Steelers Nation would be rather content if the team could claim yet another…non-losing season and eke its way into playoff contention.
It’s possible the team could be peaking at the end of the year and could offer some disruption to the more likely participating in the parade of champions.
What should we expect as we launch into another chapter of this extraordinarily lengthy Tomlin era? Let’s give it a Spin.
Cam-Tastic
Tomlin wasn’t the only long-timer who had lottery officials ring his front doorbell bearing a giant check. Defensive Tackle Cameron Heyward also got a deep dip into the team’s honey bucket with what amounted to a two-year contract extension.
Most would agree this isn’t a blockbuster deal in terms of the team’s makeup this year, but for those of us who have been longtime Heyward advocates, it seems as if the quintessential Steelers player has received his just rewards.
Although it could be easily argued that Troy Polamalu was the best defensive player of the new millennium, when you factor in Heyward’s leadership and longevity, he needs to be at least considered for those honors.
In a day and age when too many teams are ingloriously dumping their veterans and when too many players are too eager to become free agents and leave town, the relationship between Cameron Heyward, the Pittsburgh Steelers, and the communities he positively impacts has been…of a Hall of Fame nature.
For more Machiavellian thinkers, this latest decision was perhaps unwise for such an older player, but for most of Steelers Nation, this was not only the right decision but the only decision.
Not to mention…Heyward continues to show he has much to contribute to the Steeler’s defense and could easily do so for the next three years.
Will he reward us with his best year ever? Don’t be shocked if it happens.
Who’s On First?
Since Ben Roethlisberger rode his horse into the sunset, the Steelers have been plagued with quarterback uncertainty.
There is a strong argument the Steelers improperly executed their succession plan, and the resulting malaise should now be expected.
Mason Rudolph? Devlin Hodges? Mitchell Trubisky? Kenny Pickett?
And now…with only hours before the season starts, we’re left wondering whether Russell Wilson or Justin Fields will start.
If NFL life were fair, Fields would be getting the nod. He’s shown up healthy and focused on all of the practices, scrimmages, and preseason games, and he has accorded himself well, albeit not spectacularly.
If it was a fair competition, he’s the clear winner over Wilson, who has been plagued by a calf injury since he got bested by a tackling sled. Such are the murmurings of old age. Now we learn this calf injury may not be fully healed.
What’s really unfair is that the rest of the offensive players don’t know how to play. Wilson and Fields are not interchangeable parts, as the team would like you to believe.
Their styles of play are rather radically different, so not committing Fields is holding back more than Fields.
Wilson is undoubtedly the more accomplished of the two, but Fields wins hands down on future possibilities.
Tomlin is known for being protective and respectful of his older players, but there comes a point when this initially honorable approach gets twisted into being more about clinging too long onto former glory.
Unless Wilson is at 100 percent prior to game start, it’s time for him to start working on his backup quarterback skills and to let Fields have the field to himself.
Let’s be real here. This is a team in transition, and plans should be mostly future-reaching.
Steelers Football
If it seems as if the Spin is being overly gloomy…I can assure you we are not.
Actually, in many ways, this year is about getting the Steelers back to where they always should have been.
The past experiment of turning this team into a high-flying offensive trapeze act while having a paper-thin defense should officially be put to rest…and hopefully forever.
The Steelers have been off-brand for many years, resulting in a long run of almost-beens and mostly outright mediocrity.
Even during Roethlisberger’s prime years, it was a mistake to try to convert this team to be Air Coryell.
The Steelers won two Super Bowls with having an elite defense, and a still-learning Big Ben. Had they stuck with a commitment to the run and kept retooling their defense, how many more would they have won?
Couldn’t have Roethlisberger done just fine with a new “Jerome Bettis”, a mauling offensive line, and a Hines Ward-type receiving corps? Did we have to go through the “Young Money” phase for a full decade?
You might not be thrilled with having Arthur Smith as your offensive coordinator, but I am. Not because he’s a proven field general, but because he’s got mostly a one-track mind.
Run, baby, run.
All of the required talent is now assembled on the offensive line. They just need the dough to get baked properly.
This defense, especially with the acquisition of Patrick Queen filling a gaping need for the squad, is ready to rise once again.
Win in the trenches. Run the ball. Play great defense.
That sounds like Steelers football to me.
I find that thrilling.
About Them Birds
The Kansas City Chiefs did the Steelers a grand favor by dispatching the Baltimore Ravens in the league opener on Thursday. This saddles the Ravens with a divisional loss before Pittsburgh takes the field for the first time this season.
The Ravens remain the class of the AFC North, with the Cincinnati Bengals poised to be a threat if Joe Burrow can stay healthy and Ja’Marr Chase can get paid. It’s their defense which may be a question mark, as Burrow’s second contract payday has thinned out the rest of the talent pool.
Speaking of question marks…ladies and gentlemen…the Cleveland Browns.
Remember when we used to make fun of the Browns for all of their quarterback indecisions? Well…those still exist, but we’re pretty much in a glass house ourselves now…so no rocks for us.
The quarterback might not matter for the Browns anyway, as their defense is considered the best in the NFL.
All of this lines up to be a rumbling road for the Pittsburgh Steelers this year. It begins with a matchup against the Atlanta Falcons, who boast elite youthful talent on offense led by a reconstructed Kirk Cousins.
This is no easy win for the Steelers, but they really need to win, considering their tough matches ahead. They have to hope the Falcons aren’t quite ready to fly this early in the season.
Regardless…football is back on the menu—so many questions for the Steelers this year.
And so we begin. Time to get some answers.
