The Pittsburgh Steelers have made a ton of moves this offseason. Some look at that as a good thing, thinking Omar Khan and Mike Tomlin are making the moves necessary to push the Steelers into contention in 2025. On the flip side, others view it as a problem, thinking the team is without a direction. Dave Dameshek agrees with the latter.
“Where’s the evidence of Mike Tomlin’s defensive wizardry if you remove T.J. Watt from the equation?” Dameshek asked on 102.5 WDVE on Thursday. “It’s all, well they’ve got to keep T.J. Watt or the whole thing falls apart. But also, Cam Heyward’s important. But also, even though we have Keeanu Benton, now we’ve gotta use a first-round pick on another defensive lineman. And also, we gotta purge this Minkah Fitzpatrick, who is an All-Pro specimen. But he’s not doing it exactly the way we want. So we’ll get Jalen Ramsey, but he won’t play cornerback. He’s gonna be our new safety.”
Tomlin being a controversial figure among the Steelers’ fan base isn’t anything new. He’s earned a ton of credit for overachieving with his teams, but others blame him for putting himself in the position to have to overachieve in the first place. Dameshek is taking that route here, and he does make some good points.
Mike Tomlin’s known as a defensive coach, too much so to some. However, the Steelers’ performance without T.J. Watt speaks for itself. They simply don’t win when he’s not on the field. In Tomlin’s defense, many of the losses, both with Watt on and off the field, have come from the offense’s inability to find any sort of consistency. And any defense would perform worse without a player of Watt’s caliber.
Some of the moves this offseason do align with Dameshek’s point, though. Pittsburgh used a high draft pick on Keeanu Benton, taking him in the second round in 2023. Despite having both him and Cam Heyward on the interior, the unit was weak enough that Pittsburgh felt the need to take Derrick Harmon in the first round this year and Yahya Black in the fifth. Both of those could turn out to be good selections, but it also shows that the Steelers weren’t getting as much production as they needed with the core assembled before them.
Regarding the Minkah Fitzpatrick trade, some view Jalen Ramsey as an upgrade, to Mike Tomlin’s credit. That said, something clearly wasn’t working with Fitzpatrick and the Steelers recently. After having a league-leading six interceptions in 2022, Fitzpatrick had just one over the last two years. He still played well against the run, but was lacking enough against the pass for the Steelers to decide to move him.
All things considered, Dameshek thinks the Steelers just don’t have much of a plan.
“It’s all flailing, searching for answers,” Dameshek said. “All just kicking it down the road by another six months, by another season. It doesn’t feel like there’s an actual plan. It is all, like I say, reactionary.”
For what it’s worth, there does seem to be some sort of a plan for the roster in general. Pittsburgh seems to view the 2026 NFL Draft as a chance to retool their roster, and they have some contracts expiring after the 2025 season. For now, they’re doing their best to contend in 2025 as is.
Whether that works or not remains up in the air. If all these moves don’t pay off, though, the pressure will only grow on Mike Tomlin going forward.
