The Steelers need to change their ways in the post-Mike Tomlin era if they want to stay relevant, NFL insider Jay Glazer believes. Long a friend of Tomlin, his analysis may lack some degree of objectivity. But after 19 years with one head coach, some changes naturally feel inevitable anyway.
While the Steelers are long associated with stability, Glazer chalks that up somewhat to luck. Or at least the good fortune of making a good decision three times over half a century. Yes, the Steelers have only had three head coaches since 1969, but they’ve also only had three chances to fail. If you get it right once, you’re good for 15 years or more before worrying about it again.
“Everybody thinks it’s the greatest because, ‘Well, they don’t fire head coaches’. Well, they don’t fire head coaches because they’ve been successful all those years”, Glazer said on Wake Up Barstool about Pittsburgh’s vacant head coach position. “But the Steelers, man, they have no quarterback, they have an aging defense where you’re gonna have to move on from some guys who are stars”.
“I think you’ve got to change [how things] are done in the organization. I think Mike T really, really covered up a lot of things that are done over there. They don’t spend like other teams. At all”, he insisted about the Steelers. That claim, however, requires at least a degree of nuance, even if there’s a grain of truth.
The Steelers typically spend as much as any other team in the league—and there is only so little you can spend, since every team is subject to a cap floor anyway. The difference is how they spend their money. The Steelers favor re-signing their own free agents rather than signing outside free agents. While they have pivoted to some degree with Patrick Queen and James Daniels in recent years, it largely remains true.
No, the Steelers often don’t make big splashes, even if they have some sizeable ripples. But we can’t ignore what they did just last year. They traded for DK Metcalf and then signed him to a $30 million APY contract. They traded Minkah Fitzpatrick and got Jalen Ramsey in return. If these were moves they had made in free agency, we would be having a different conversation about how stuck in their ways they are.
“I think there’s gonna be a little bit of a rough patch ahead here where they’re gonna have to start learning how to really open up to spending and doing things differently”, Glazer said of the Steelers’ post-Tomlin future. “If you do that, then, yeah, you could be successful for a long time”.
It’s worth bearing in mind that the Steelers are only entering their fourth offseason with Omar Khan as general manager. He has certainly been a little bolder than Kevin Colbert was, especially on the trade front. But Colbert also had typically stronger rosters that needed less outside reinforcements. Once the Steelers had weaker rosters, they adapted and made bigger moves in free agency and via trade. Still, I don’t think they’re going to sign George Pickens this offseason.