If there’s any team that can be used as a model of consistency throughout the NFL, it’s the Pittsburgh Steelers. While there were struggles in the first decades of the franchise’s existence, ever since Chuck Noll took over in 1969, fans haven’t had to endure many losing seasons.
The NFL is constantly changing. Although the Steelers have been a model franchise for so long, it might be time to change some things themselves. Longtime and now retired Pittsburgh sports anchor and reporter Guy Junker seems to hold that opinion, sharing his thoughts on The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette’s YouTube channel on Saturday.
“I’m not a knee-jerk kind of guy,” Junker told the PPG’s Jason Mackey. “And I think patience and stability has served them [Pittsburgh Steelers] well for a long period of time. I think it’s gotten to the point where, if it’s not a head-coaching change, some kind of cattle prod needs to go in there and change the way they do things a little bit.
“There’s been a lot made about the amount of assistant coaches they have. And I think the game has passed them by a little bit… The game has changed and I don’t think they’ve adapted to that.”
Junker is right that consistency has served the Steelers well. The Steelers playoff results over the last half-decade also prove him right that something substantial isn’t working. Perhaps it’s an older coaching staff, especially defensively, and more rigid in their ways. In the front office, the team has made strides in analytics but still lag behind other organizations and there’s rarely anything modern said about the team. The Washington Commanders used VR technology to help Jayden Daniels have the greatest rookie season of any quarterback. Pittsburgh dabbled in it nearly a decade ago with little talk of the tech since.
They’ve been so consistent that they’ve now stuck themselves in the mud. Mike Tomlin is clearly too good of a head coach to have a losing season. However, he hasn’t been able to elevate this roster to anything more than a fringe Wild Card team in the past decade.
So Pittsburgh finds themselves in football purgatory. They’ve been good enough to keep the fanbase somewhat satisfied over the years, even without playoff success. However, their five-game losing streak to end the 2024 season put a sour taste in the mouths of the fanbase, a group now as restless as they’ve been in a long time.
Soon after the Steelers playoff loss to the Baltimore Ravens, Mike Tomlin claimed there would be some change this offseason. We haven’t seen that change yet.
All things considered, changes need to happen soon. There’s a good chance either Russell Wilson or Justin Fields return at quarterback in 2025. That won’t be enough to make them Super Bowl contenders or appease the fanbase. Junker is in tune with the general mood around the franchise. Time will tell if the Steelers will modernize.
