Days of The Steelers

  With the football season winding down, many teams are willing to change their coaching staff, game plan, and players during the offseason. Some teams go through minor changes like changing gameplans, but some teams change their head coach or cut major players. The Pittsburgh Steelers have had major controversy this season, culminating with them not making the playoffs and breaking a 4-year playoff streak.

 This season the Steelers were inconsistent, to say the least, going from defeating the 5-time Super Bowl champs, the New England Patriots, to losing to the Oakland Raiders, a team that would only win 4 games this season. Losses to inferior opponents caused the Steelers to miss the playoffs, but ultimately, team turmoil.

  Many fans link the inconsistencies in performance to the Head Coach Mike Tomlin. Tomlin is known for not succeeding in the playoffs, not having control over his players, poor clock management, and poor replay challenges. Journalist Tim Benz from triblive.com, a news website, said that Tomlin has not won his last 10 replay

challenges in the 2018 season. Steelers fans have suggested to have other coaches help him with replay challenges and game clock management.

  The rest of the coaching staff has started changing for the 2019 season. Journalist Jeff Hartman for behindthesteelcurtain.com stated that the Outside Linebackers coach Joey Porter and Running Backs coach James Saxon have been relieved of duty. Hartman also stated that Tomlin had a meeting with Defensive Coordinator Keith Butler and decided that Butler will probably remain with the Steelers next season.

  The big problem with the Steelers this season was their players. It started when Pro-Bowl running back Le’Veon Bell decided hold out before the season started. James Conner took over at the position until an injury in week 14.

  Another issue was a feud between quarterback Ben Roethlisberger and wide receiver Antonio Brown. Bryan Deardo, journalist for 247sports.com, said that after a week 12 loss to the Denver Broncos, Roethlisberger on his weekly radio show called out rookie receiver James Washington for failing to catch a deep pass that would have led to points.

  Deardo also said that Roethlisberger called out receiver Antonio Brown saying that he failed to run his route properly resulting in a game-sealing interception by the Broncos. Roethlisberger said that if he could replay that final sequence in Denver he would throw 4 straight passes to wide receiver Juju Smith-Schuster. This affair culminated with Brown on twitter saying sarcastically to “trade me”and he left during a week 17 game against division rival, Cincinnati Bengals.

  Brown and Bell are intending to leave the team during the off-season. On Twitter, Brown updated his bio to say “all pro wide receiver” instead of “Steelers all pro wide receiver.” Bell left and is leading a group of 16 Steelers going out for free agency.

  The Steelers organization has gone through lots of turmoil this season but there is still hope for Steelers fans. With the organization losing lots of major players, the Steelers still have many good qualities, like one of the best run-blocking offensive lines: veteran Quarterback Ben Roethlisberger, star receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster, and potent Running Back James Conner.