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And the Decline of the Pittsburgh Steelers Has Begun

 
They will find a way to get under the cap but I think they will lose a few veterans along the way. Keep in mind, there's the "800 lb they still have to re-sign Mike Wallace or let him walk in free agency elephant in the room."

They will, at some point, have to inject that defense with youth as it is aging. A couple of their front 3 are aging/high contracts and a few LB's are getting long in the tooth. Polamalu has difficulty staying healthy and has lost a step, imo.

And in the same breath, Chazz...and I KNOW this will make you cry with you being a "diehard Ravens fan and all, but Baltimore is in a similar situation.
 
BR1986FB said:
They will find a way to get under the cap but I think they will lose a few veterans along the way. Keep in mind, there's the "800 lb they still have to re-sign Mike Wallace or let him walk in free agency elephant in the room."

They will, at some point, have to inject that defense with youth as it is aging. A couple of their front 3 are aging/high contracts and a few LB's are getting long in the tooth. Polamalu has difficulty staying healthy and has lost a step, imo.

And in the same breath, Chazz...and I KNOW this will make you cry with you being a "diehard Ravens fan and all, but Baltimore is in a similar situation.
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I'm not a diehard Ravens fan, lol. It should be interesting to see if Ed Reed retires though.
 
I've been hearing about the decline of the Steelers for many years now, but it never happens. They generally keep the money situation under control, they draft well every season and they always have a clone of the starter backing up every position, and they just plug them in as they let high priced starters go. They seldom miss a beat. They are the best run long term franchise since the aFL/NFL merger...and they are probably only behind the Patriots now.
 
Ward was a complete non-factor this year. His leaving has little to no impact on the team's quality going forward. The Todd Haley/Ben Roethlisberger relationship is going to be a much bigger deal.

Chris Hoke, Aaron Smith, and Casey Hampton are all on the "retiring, probably retiring, and if they don't retire will be released" list.

When teams like NE, Green Bay, and the Giants are making conference championship games with sh!tty defenses, the defense's aging might not be as big of a deal as it might of been a few years ago.
 
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diehardvballfan said:
They already have the young guys on defense, and offense for that matter. While the starters are aging on defense, they have guys who are ready and waiting to take over. The only spot they need a couple young guys at would be NT and Safety. They have a couple young DEs. Some young LBs.

Ward leaving signals the start to a different era, but they are not declining.
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Oh? I beg to differ. Look at their season last year. The only reason they made the playoffs was because of their soft, pathetic schedule. They got swept by Baltimore, and embarrassed by San Francisco. As far as the playoffs are concerned, the results speak for itself. They are in fact, on the decline.
 
ChazzMichaelMichaels said:
Oh? I beg to differ. Look at their season last year. The only reason they made the playoffs was because of their soft, pathetic schedule. They got swept by Baltimore, and embarrassed by San Francisco. As far as the playoffs are concerned, the results speak for itself. They are in fact, on the decline.
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As usual, whatever Chazz spews out on here is complete and utter drivel with nothing factual to back it up. Chazz reminds me of George in Seinfeld. I recall 2 episodes: one where George exclaims 'For I am Costanza, lord of the idiots.'. The other is when George chooses to do the opposite of every instinct he has. Every time Chazz posts something on here, every one should just think/believe the OPPOSITE.

The Steelers have gone through plenty of 'age' changes on both sides of the ball in the last 10 years and still manage to keep themselves a championship caliber team/organization. The 'decline' you speak of simply won't happen and age had nothing to do with your so-called decline this season. Too many injuries to overcome this season, but in the end, that will actually HELP them for next season because several young guys got a good amount of experience this past year. Not really sure where you get the 'soft' schedule either. They played and beat the team that went to the Super Bowl from the AFC. Their 4 regular season losses were all to playoff teams, all to teams that WON playoff games as well.

Chazz, stick with the OPPOSITE.
 
Crusaders said:
The Todd Haley/Ben Roethlisberger relationship is going to be a much bigger deal.
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I agree, this will be interesting. IMO if the Steelers should regress (which I doubt they will) the Haley hire will be the cause whether it's the truth or not. Was Bruce really that bad?
 
diehardvballfan said:
They already have the young guys on defense, and offense for that matter. While the starters are aging on defense, they have guys who are ready and waiting to take over. The only spot they need a couple young guys at would be NT and Safety. They have a couple young DEs. Some young LBs.
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Not so sure about this on the defensive side. Yes, they may have some young guys ready to step up and take their place but will they be the same type of impact players? :shrug:

Hampton is some VERY big (literally) shoes to fill. 330-350 lb space eating nose tackles for a 3-4 don't grow on trees.

As I've said before, I think they should still be successful but they will be more of an offensive team with a "so so" defense.
 
Crusaders said:
Yes, he was. The big issues are 1. Ben was pissed that he was fired 2. Haley is known for being a dbag.
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If Arians plays smashmouth offense as the Rooney's feel needs to happen, their record ends up worse than it was (the O line was their un-doing), and if Mendenhall wouldn't have gone down to injury, who knows? This seasons outcome wasn't due to anything Arians did/did not do.
I wouldn't be surprised to see Arians do well in Indy, and Haley do not so well in Pittsburgh.

Ben shouldn't mind so much, he'll be handing the ball off for the most part anyway. Put Haley the dbag in the booth.
 
Bballer05 said:
As usual, whatever Chazz spews out on here is complete and utter drivel with nothing factual to back it up. Chazz reminds me of George in Seinfeld. I recall 2 episodes: one where George exclaims 'For I am Costanza, lord of the idiots.'. The other is when George chooses to do the opposite of every instinct he has. Every time Chazz posts something on here, every one should just think/believe the OPPOSITE.

The Steelers have gone through plenty of 'age' changes on both sides of the ball in the last 10 years and still manage to keep themselves a championship caliber team/organization. The 'decline' you speak of simply won't happen and age had nothing to do with your so-called decline this season. Too many injuries to overcome this season, but in the end, that will actually HELP them for next season because several young guys got a good amount of experience this past year. Not really sure where you get the 'soft' schedule either. They played and beat the team that went to the Super Bowl from the AFC. Their 4 regular season losses were all to playoff teams, all to teams that WON playoff games as well.

Chazz, stick with the OPPOSITE.
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They are not continuing to be a championship caliber team because they weren't one last season. You can jazz up their losses all you want, all I saw was a team that only beat bottom feeders. And I love how all Steeler fans use the injury excuse as their crutch, as if to say no other teams in football endure injuries throughout the season. Heck, the Houston Texans won a freakin' playoff game with a rookie 3rd string quarterback! Furthermore, if you're hanging your hat on the New England win at home for them, that should tell everyone what they need to know. Not only was that win a fluke, but they won that game before New England really hit their stride. If you think that would've been duplicated in the playoffs, you're on crack. Just admit it, they aren't what they used to be, and it's only gonna get worse.
 
ChazzMichaelMichaels said:
They are not continuing to be a championship caliber team because they weren't one last season. You can jazz up their losses all you want, all I saw was a team that only beat bottom feeders. And I love how all Steeler fans use the injury excuse as their crutch, as if to say no other teams in football endure injuries throughout the season. Heck, the Houston Texans won a freakin' playoff game with a rookie 3rd string quarterback! Furthermore, if you're hanging your hat on the New England win at home for them, that should tell everyone what they need to know. Not only was that win a fluke, but they won that game before New England really hit their stride. If you think that would've been duplicated in the playoffs, you're on crack. Just admit it, they aren't what they used to be, and it's only gonna get worse.
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They have a lot of rings in Pittsburgh for a reason. They'll have a few off years, if you want to consider making the playoffs an off year, but they'll reload over the next 2 seasons and be right back where they always are, playing in superbowls.
 
Dover Dawg said:
If Arians plays smashmouth offense as the Rooney's feel needs to happen, their record ends up worse than it was (the O line was their un-doing), and if Mendenhall wouldn't have gone down to injury, who knows? This seasons outcome wasn't due to anything Arians did/did not do.
I wouldn't be surprised to see Arians do well in Indy, and Haley do not so well in Pittsburgh.

Ben shouldn't mind so much, he'll be handing the ball off for the most part anyway. Put Haley the dbag in the booth.
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The offense was 21st in scoring. They couldn't have done much worse running it a bit more.
 
WuTang said:
They have a lot of rings in Pittsburgh for a reason. They'll have a few off years, if you want to consider making the playoffs an off year, but they'll reload over the next 2 seasons and be right back where they always are, playing in superbowls.
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Nah, Roethlisberger won't win another Super Bowl.
 
What is going to keep the Steelers from winning is their o-line ... If they don't fix it they will be in trouble.
 
diehardvballfan said:
I don't see how that article supports your argument at all. What I took from that article is that Roethlisberger is in a position where he can voice his opinion. It also states he is the reason the Steelers have done so well, and has helped Tomlin become one of the top coaches. Like the article says, the steelers need him more than he needs the Steelers. He will most likely retire a Steeler with at least 1 more ring. Ill come back when he retires and eat crow if Im wrong. Im confident though.
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We agree to disagree.

He has an overrated head coach who stepped into a "cherry" situation that Cowher built, an aging defense that seems to hit the wall as the season progresses and a D-Coordinator who should be retiring soon. Any success in the coming future will be predicated on how well he & Haley work together. I just don't see him getting another ring.
 
BR1986FB said:
We agree to disagree.

He has an overrated head coach who stepped into a "cherry" situation that Cowher built, an aging defense that seems to hit the wall as the season progresses and a D-Coordinator who should be retiring soon. Any success in the coming future will be predicated on how well he & Haley work together. I just don't see him getting another ring.
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The Steelers hit a lull during the Cowher years, before rallying in his last few years. That coincided with Colbert coming in as GM and doing the drafting. Colbert is still there. So is Big Ben. They will get another ring before anyone in the AFC North gets a ring. I don't like the Steelers, but they are everything I wish the Browns would be.
 
cjb56 said:
The Steelers hit a lull during the Cowher years, before rallying in his last few years. That coincided with Colbert coming in as GM and doing the drafting. Colbert is still there. So is Big Ben. They will get another ring before anyone in the AFC North gets a ring. I don't like the Steelers, but they are everything I wish the Browns would be.
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No.

Over the last few years, Colbert hasn't drafted all that well. As I said, the defense falls apart later in the season and they don't really have the impact defensive players to step up and replace those that get injured. They are going to have to reload on defense and their reserves aren't good enough to keep that defense at an elite level.

A major reason for their success over the last 15, or so, years is that they usual have 4 "gimme" wins in the division between the Browns and Bengals. That won't be the case over the next few years.
 
[And the Decline of the Pittsburgh Steelers Has Begun]

You people have been waiting 40 years for this, how's that worked so far?
 
Speaking of the Steelers and their "fans...."

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