3 difficult decisions Steelers will need to make this offseason

The 2024 offseason is an important one for the Pittsburgh Steelers. After falling backward into the playoffs with a 10-7 record, the Steelers still have a long way to go to be a contender to push for a deep playoff push rather than being bounced in the Wild Card yet again.

Still, with head coach Mike Tomlin posting yet another winning season, the franchise remains in win-now mode. In some ways, the team feels like it's a quarterback away from being a threat, in others the team shows it needs some drastic improvements.

Of course, every offseason comes with difficult decisions, whether it's deciding how much to spend in free agency, who to focus on in the draft class, and how to upgrade the coaching staff. But the difficult decisions I want to discuss are the emotional ones for the Steelers front office.

Sure, football is a business. No matter who is on the roster, the Steelers will play football games in the same uniforms each season. But these are people, men with families, stories, and ambitions. Because players and coaches make so much money, many fans, unintentionally or otherwise, look at them as machines designed to bring them happiness through stellar performance. Unfortunately, that isn't always the case.

Fans see the result of a week's worth of preparation on Sundays, but the building intermingled with staff, coaches, and players spend a great amount of time together. Those connections are hard to sever, or alter, in the offseason, even if the NFL is just a business.

The Steelers have to make significant change though, because the name of the business is winning - and the Steelers aren't as good at that as they'd like to be. So these are the most difficult decisions the Steelers will have to make in the 2024 offseason.