{"id":649128,"date":"2026-01-02T22:13:13","date_gmt":"2026-01-02T22:13:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/649128\/"},"modified":"2026-01-02T22:13:13","modified_gmt":"2026-01-02T22:13:13","slug":"get-ready-james-harrison-issues-warning-to-steelers-fans-about-the-future","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/649128\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Get Ready:’ James Harrison Issues Warning To Steelers Fans About The Future"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Pittsburgh Steelers\u2019 standard is championships. However, they haven\u2019t come close to meeting that goal for years. They haven\u2019t even won a playoff game since<\/a> the 2016 season. It\u2019s unclear if that will change this year, too. The Steelers won\u2019t even make the playoffs if they lose to the Baltimore Ravens Sunday night. James Harrison thinks it might be time for the Steelers to embrace a rebuild.<\/p>\n

\u201cI believe that, with the current defense we have, or should I say defensive ranking we have, without a veteran quarterback, we will be in the bottom,\u201d Harrison said Friday on his Deebo and Joe podcast.<\/a> \u201cMaybe that\u2019s what we need. We need to get ready, as Steeler fans, to be down for a couple years to be able to come back up. It\u2019s gonna look, hopefully, something like what the Patriots did over the last few years.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re gonna be down, they\u2019re gonna get a new coach, they\u2019re gonna come back up, and they\u2019re gonna be where they are now. I feel like we\u2019re gonna have to have that down year. We\u2019re gonna be in the basement for a year or two to where we can get that quarterback and have that coach and coaching staff that can develop those players.\u201d<\/p>\n

The New England Patriots were consistently one of the best teams throughout the 2000s and 2010s. However, Tom Brady left them after the 2019 season, and they had a few middling years after that. That continued until they hit rock bottom in 2023, Bill Belichick\u2019s final season as their head coach. The Patriots went 4-13 and hit a total reset following that.<\/p>\n

After posting another 4-13 season in 2024, the Patriots are back among the top teams in the league. They\u2019re 13-3, and they\u2019ve found their next franchise quarterback in Drake Maye.<\/p>\n

Could the Steelers follow that blueprint?<\/a> Maybe, but it\u2019s highly unlikely that they\u2019d do that on purpose. The Steelers don\u2019t tank. They haven\u2019t had a losing season since 2003. While they always want to compete for Super Bowls, they put a lot of stock in winning in general.<\/p>\n

Also, even if the Steelers have a down year or two, they probably wouldn\u2019t fire Mike Tomlin. Steelers ownership has a lot of patience. If Tomlin leaves the Steelers, it will be his decision.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s no guarantee that tanking would fix<\/a> the Steelers, either. Winning does a lot for a team. Look at how many teams have consistently picked near the top of the draft and still haven\u2019t found a franchise quarterback. It\u2019s much easier said than done. The Steelers don\u2019t want to become the Cleveland Browns or New York Jets.<\/p>\n

There are other ways to land a franchise quarterback, too. Perhaps the Steelers could trade up in the draft. They\u2019ve got a lot of capital for the 2026 NFL Draft.<\/p>\n

Tanking isn\u2019t a switch that can be flipped on or off. If things start going poorly for the Steelers, there\u2019s no telling when they\u2019ll become contenders again. Fans might end up wishing for the team to simply make the playoffs again.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Pittsburgh Steelers\u2019 standard is championships. However, they haven\u2019t come close to meeting that goal for years. They…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":649129,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[83800,7,2710,6,57,691],"class_list":{"0":"post-649128","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nfl","8":"tag-deebo-and-joe","9":"tag-football","10":"tag-james-harrison","11":"tag-nfl","12":"tag-pittsburgh-steelers","13":"tag-trending"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115827809050150119","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/649128","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=649128"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/649128\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/649129"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=649128"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=649128"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=649128"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}