Espn dropped this scathing piece this morning.

46 comments
  1. Don’t know if I’d call this scathing but they aren’t wrong. We’ve made bad bets at almost every possible turn. I’d gladly take a few 3-4 win seasons if we were actually committed to burning it down and rebuilding like the Pats have done.

  2. I’d say this analysis is pretty benign given how ass we play every week. The critiques are valid, every single one of them

  3. If you watch the games and still need ESPN to tell you we suck, then may God have mercy on your soul

  4. What time are all the talking heads coming on ESPN to say that this isn’t Tomlins fault and if he gets fired he’d get a new job in 5 seconds?

    Seriously, why does all of the media, national and local, defend Tomlin to their grave?

  5. It can be scathing and true btw. What Kahn and company were praised for doing in the offseason has made them the worst team I’ve seen since the 80s.

  6. A lot of people saw these issues on the horizon. The fact the Steelers still made all these terrible moves show they have no concept of self evaluation. They have no clue how deeply they’re flawed to the core.

    This is on Rooney more than anyone else! Kahn, and Tomlin are to blame as well, but Rooney obviously can’t see the forest through the trees. The organizational meetings must be a circle jerk and an echo chamber constantly. I bet Tomlin and Kahn make Art II feel good, get him to laugh, tell him a few stories of his dad, then present their terrible plan, and Art II signs off on everything.

  7. The TJ Watt contract is by far the biggest disaster of any of these. He has fallen off a cliff, and his new contract hasn’t even really started. We are locked into paying him like a franchise QB for years and he is invisible every game now.

  8. They are a trash team. Khan, Tomlin and the ghost of Colbert are to blame. Khan gets off easy but he’s a moron too

  9. Disagree with some of the picture being painted here, Ramsey was a lot better moved to safety, but we are paying him top corner money. Minkah was not good for us at all last year, how quickly everyone forgets. Darius Slay for 10mil is easily the worst signing we’ve made and isn’t mentioned. Kinda leaves out the whole story about Pickens too.

    Most of it is correct though, especially highlighting the Rodgers play. I would like for this to be considered a lost season and see what Howard has, but gonna try to win the division as if it even matters at this point, and Tomlin won’t stand up to Rodgers.

  10. Rodgers has his issues but there’s clear offensive line and wr issues that’s not gonna help him AT ALL. It’s also the reason it’s stupid to throw a rookie Will Howard in there with the terrible play calling, o line that gives up blocks, a wr room that can’t get open or catch balls and believe he’ll somehow get them to act right when the veterans cannot. It’s mainly goes to the coaching tbh

  11. Somehow isn’t harsh enough, especially towards our receivers. They might be the worst WR room in the league

  12. This started before last offseason. What about giving Ravens castaway Patrick Queen a big contract. It would be hard to replace his throwing his hands up in confusion after half the plays. What about the midseason trade for Mike Williams who played like 6 snaps. What about letting the only guy who could stop the run Elandon Roberts walk and replace him with another Ravens castaway Malik Harrison who’s been a ghost.

    Last offseason was just a continuance of a pattern of confusing moves and no clear path to what they seem to want to do.

  13. This is kinda shooting fish in barrel. The main reason the team is down is because 1. They have missed on a ton of picks, which everyone does but when Najee, Kenny and even BroJo (before injury) have been a bust or uninspiring you’re not gonna win.

    Defensive and offensive philosophy is outdated. The team hasn’t adapted and believes it can still win the way it did in 2008. That’s just isn’t possible. The team is trying to emulate the Eagles but is missing on picks and free agent acquisitions. How many times do they bring in old bets with flashy last names who are past this prime?

    Skill and speed wins in the NFL now. Something the Steelers have shied away from because they want to play “power football” and how is that going? Ask ownership because this was the direction they pushed then organization since 2019

  14. Are we overrating Kahn? Top money for a below average defense, and pretty much not 1 elite player on offense.

  15. I question this article authenticity….it didn’t include Patrick Queen’s inability to play linebacker.

  16. Pretty accurate. We are in dire need of change from the top down. It’s a damn shame that Watt won’t get a Super Bowl but neither will Garrett.

  17. The article phrased it ā€œsecond in cap spendingā€ for our defense, but all you ever hear is they’re the highest paid. Anyone know what the discrepancy is here?

  18. The thing that gets me is the one piece that they’ve been successful at: YAC. There’s ways and routes to scheme for this but so far I haven’t really seen them lean into it.

    The first throw IIRC to Washington was a comeback route. To Washington. šŸ¤”

  19. Anyone who has been paying attention knew most of this.

    If you are surprised at the outcomes, or if you keep making excuses for Rodgers, then you’re not very smart.

  20. The simplicity, and I don’t mean that in a negative connotation, of the defense against Indy worked really well. Looking at the game on paper I had thst one as a L. My question is have we moved past thar simplified defense structure to go back to our more complex defense or is the D we are seeing that same defense as we saw against Indy but being cooked by premier offensive talent?

  21. We need to save as many picks as possible to go younger in the next draft, as opposed to packaging them to move up for a QB. We have too many holes.

  22. I don’t necessarily think getting rid of Pickens was a bad idea because we wouldn’t have extended him anyway and he was a headcase here, but the DK trade was a complete waste. He is worse than Pickens, older, and isn’t a good fit for the offense. Such a waste.

  23. What’s crazy to me is as accurate as this article is, they are only a few plays going a different way from being 8-4. The first Bengals game, the Bears game, even the Seahawks game was just a couple of bonehead, unforced errors from being a win. Heck, they even had a good half time lead against the Packers.

    That said, this is easily the least enjoyable season I have ever watched, but in reality it hasn’t been as bad as it seems. I think the fact it is like the 5th year in a row it all feels like the same dumb shit is the reason it is so tiring. But sadly, until we string together a number of good draft classes to make up for the end of the Colbert era and get a long term QB, this is going to be the reality.

  24. I’m honestly happy to see ESPN tackling this instead of just praising Tomlin. We are bad. Really bad. It’s time to make a change. I’d rather go winless for a season than this hell we are in. We either back door our way into the playoffs, win a shit division, or just miss the playoffs. Either way, it’s brutal down the stretch because our offensive and defensive play calling are the most predicable in the league.

    It was comical how we knew what the bills were doing and still had no prayer of stopping them. Teams either run all over us or execute the same pass play over and over like a cheat code in madden.

  25. Even with all of this, they’re tied for the division lead. I know technically Baltimore has the tiebreaker, but they still play twice. Those games will likely decide the division. I hated almost every off-season decision they made, especially Rodgers. Minkah hadn’t done much the past couple years, seeing him go wasn’t heartbreaking. The O line and D line have good young players that should get better. The Watt extension isn’t terrible. He’s not been producing, but does get double teamed often. Someone else needs to win more often in those situations. Or maybe the coaches should scheme some plays around knowing Watt will be doubled. To bring in DK and get rid of Pickens never made sense. The offense would be so much better if Pickens was still around. Also, DK has had similar issues, so if character was part of the decision, they shouldn’t have signed DK and tried to work more with Pickens or found someone else. I’m eternalky grateful they didn’t make the Shedeur mistake. The only qb I’d want less than Rodgers.

    Just start Will Howard and see what’s there. Or actually give Rudolph a shot. Let him get starter reps and plan around him. Most of the time when he plays it’s not official until game day. I still don’t think they’ve ever really given him a shot. But, if they don’t plan to, they definitely need to move on from him. No matter what you say about his play, he’s been shit on by the Steelers. When Ben got hurt, he had one bad game and they played Duck. Ben retired, they brought in Trubisky and drafted Pickett, I’d take him over them every day. Would have then too. This year he comes back and they bring in Rodgers and draft Howard. They have done him dirty. I’d rather see him or Howard than one more play of Rodgers. He’s old, hurt, and a shell of his old self. The difference between playing him or not is probably at best one extra week. There’s no Superbowl this year for the Steelers. Do a little prep for next year. Do the same with other young players. Give Kaleb Johnson some carries. Let Roman Wilson run some routes.

  26. On top of the Watt contract, it’s going to cost a small fortune if/when we decide to move on from Tomlin. Rooney is going to have to splash top dollar for a decent HC and other good coordinators. But then we still need a QB. The next few years are bleak.

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