The Steelers enter the offseason in an identical spot as they have in years past. This team did enough to provide us fans with a winning season, sneak into the playoffs, and then quickly and embarrassingly get bounced from the first round. Every offseason we hear the same story and message: this team needs to improve and get back to their winning ways this year.
And every year, this team somehow remains the same miserable unit as before.
Sure, the team changes year after year. New, exciting faces are added, we see a strong draft class enter the fold on paper, and we expect our previous classes to develop into stars. No matter how much new is on the team though, the results are always the same.
We fall asleep at the end of a league year just to see our alarm clock strike 6 AM the next morning and Sonny and Cher wake us up with “Then put your little hand in mine, there ain’t no hill or mountain we can’t climb.”
With today being Groundhog Day, one can’t help but feel like Phil Connors did in the movie named after the holiday. If you have never seen the film (you really should), the premise is simple.
Bill Murray plays Connors, a weatherman from Pittsburgh who gets stuck covering the annual holiday. On this trip, he gets stuck in a time loop, replaying the same day every day. Sure, the actual details of the day shift as Murray realizes he is stuck in the same loop, but the end result is the same. Go to sleep, wake up, and repeat.
The Steelers are stuck in a similar Groundhog Day loop
As fans of this team, how can we not relate to Connor right now? The Steelers haven’t won a playoff game in almost ten years, and despite this putrid stretch of play, this team remains mostly consistent year after year.
Sure, you get a big name or two welcomed to the squad and a few new starters, but the core of the team top-down remains the same. Coaches are allowed to play out their deals, and Mike Tomlin remains at the helm despite his recent horrible playoff success.
We add a bigger name or two, but we never get that top target who could be a game-changer. We patch our holes with bandaids. Some wounds heal from that, but others are still festering a year later and need to be addressed once more.
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The worst yet is management. We hear the same message every year: we need to build a dominant defense, improve our running game, and we are fed up with not winning in January. And once all of those issues remain consistent the next year, management comes out and says the same things.
This past year was just another example of this loop playing out. While it looked like we were going to buck the trend midseason with a strong defense and effective offense, both sides of the ball fell apart. This team lost five straight games to end the year, going from in the driver's seat of the AFC North and the three seed in the playoffs to a wildcard team and losing in the first round.
The calls for big, sweeping changes were once again there, but what has this team done so far? Tomlin remains the head coach, both coordinators are expected to return, and while we will see the typical shuffle of position coaches, that certainly doesn’t scream “overhaul” like many would want this team to commit to.
Heck, the expectation right now is to run it back with mostly the same coaching staff and one of the quarterbacks that were on the roster last year. That leaves us with Russell Wilson, who was pitiful in the five-game skid, or Justin Fields, who remained on the bench despite the skid.
We can put as much lipstick on this pig as we want, but it doesn’t change the fact that this team is delusional with itself. Every year we commit to pretending to be a contender, and we don’t have the means or resources to get there.
Frankly, this team has two options to get out of this loop. They can bottom out and take a top rookie quarterback and hope he turns into the next big thing or you can buy your team with established veterans to give yourself a short window to win.
For Pittsburgh, the former is more likely, but the team and coaching staff are too proud to allow that to happen. Sure, you can’t purposefully tank a season, players and coaches should always try to win, but give a shot to younger players that will sink or swim. If they pan out you are suddenly in a great spot. If they don’t, you have the chance to land some top talent in the draft.
For Conners in Groundhog Day, the only way he escapes his loop is by completely changing himself and his personality. That doesn’t happen over just one day though, and the same is true for the Steelers. The true fixes won’t occur in just one offseason.
Frankly, I think you need a major coaching overhaul to get this team back on track, and you need an owner who is willing to allow for a bad season or two to get the young talent this team needs to compete. That, or the team needs to be willing to write blank checks to players.
Unfortunately, right now I feel like we are in the middle of this movie. You wake up every morning so disappointed to find it the same day over and over again. As fans, we have the right to be fed up, but until we see some sweeping changes and different stances from the top down, I don’t see a path to escape this loop.