The Pittsburgh Steelers just went through an offseason of extreme turnover. From the coaching staff to the roster, everything is new for this team. The hope is that new faces will lead to some new results.
One area that has remained eerily similar to last year is the linebacker room.
I can’t think of a single position that doesn’t have at least one notable new name. Most of the coaching staff was turned over, so that was a given. However, most positional groups also got a fresh face or two.
New head coach Mike McCarthy retained Scott McCurley as linebacker coach, and the top five names are holdovers from a season ago. In essence, nothing has changed, and that could prove to be a major regret for the Steelers.
The Pittsburgh Steelers may regret not adding to the linebacker room
Starting with McCurley, he was perhaps the safest coach after Mike McCarthy took over. The two have a lot of history with each other, including a stint where the two worked together for a year despite not having coaching jobs.
The Steelers brought McCurley in last year, and the results were less than ideal. The room as a whole remained lackluster despite numerous investments in the room.
Would I have liked a better coach to be brought in? Of course, but keeping McCurley was a lock after McCarthy took over.
The room itself isn’t without its warts either. Your top starters have name value in Patrick Queen and Payton Wilson, but neither lived up to expectations. Wilson was even benched in base defense after early struggles.
Malik Harrison was brought in to be a stout run defender and special teams option. He proved to be neither. Cole Holcomb was fine, but the team turned away from him later in the season. Perhaps the only consistent player was Carson Bruener, but his role was strictly special teams.
This offseason presented a lot of opportunities to upgrade the room. Internally, Harrison feels like he is overvalued and should have been cut (he certainly could still be cut before the year). Queen was rumored to be on the trade block, but a deal never materialized.
Free agency was filled with good names, and none of them broke the bank. Had Queen been traded, you still could have signed a top name like Devin Lloyd for a similar price. Had Harrison been jettisoned, a sturdy third option like Leo Chanel would have made a lot of sense.
Perhaps the biggest squandered opportunity was not drafting a linebacker. One of the few strengths of this class was at off-ball linebacker, and the Steelers had a slew of options to consider.
Instead, they are running everything back as it was and hoping for different results. Wilson could certainly take a step forward (he needs to), and Queen could get more consistent, but expecting anything significant when there were no changes is silly.
Opportunities were endless to upgrade this room this year. Instead, the linebacker room remained stagnant, and now the hope is for just natural progression. If that doesn’t occur, this defense could be in a world of hurt.
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