Steelers: Where would they be with Bruce Arians?

The Pittsburgh Steelers front office is generally one of the sharpest in the NFL, which is why the team is competitive year after year.

Nobody’s perfect, though.

One of the bigger mistakes the Steerls may have made over the last several years was letting then offensive coordinator Bruce Arians go at the end of the 2011 season. Arians and the Steelers had a lot of success together but for some reason they felt it was time to move on.

Since then Arians has won the NFL’s head coach of the year award twice, first in 2012 with the Indianapolis Colts and again last year with the Arizona Cardinals.

Now Arians is bringing his 4-1 offensive juggernaut to Heinz Field and I can’t help but wonder how amazing Pittsburgh’s offense might look right now if it had Arians running the show rather than Todd Haley. Through five games Arians’ Cardinals are averaging 38 points per game, more than any other team. Their point differential stands at a mind-blowing league-best +100 despite their loss to the Rams.

Arians certainly has a lot of talent at his disposal, especially at the skill positions. Carson Palmer is one of the league’s best veteran quarterbacks and he’s averaging career highs in yards per throw, passer rating and is on pace for the most touchdowns. Larry Fitzgerald is having a renaissance year and trails only Devonta Freeman for the league lead in touchdowns. He also has two talented running backs in Andre Ellington and Chris Johnson.

As solid as that group sounds, I don’t think the Cardinals can match the Steelers for offensive talent.

Antonio Brown may be the most dynamic player in football right now, and you could easily make a case for Le’Veon Bell to get that honor as well. Palmer is good. Ben Roethlisberger is better.

The Steelers have done alright for themselves with this group but I believe that Arians would get more out of their offense than any other coach in the sport. In fact, I’m willing to bet if Bruce Arians was still the OC they would go down in the record books as one of the most prolific offenses the NFL has ever seen.

Sunday offers a chance for Pittsburgh to see what they’re missing out on first hand, and I have a feeling Kevin Colbert and company might wake up the next day feeling at least a little bit of regret.

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