When you've been a diehard fan as long as I have, the mere mention of the Steelers (positively or negatively) will always get the juices flowing! Will be at Heinz Field Sunday for the opener! Finally, football is back!
It wouldn't be a "surprise" if the Steelers make the playoffs. The last time they missed the playoffs in consecutive seasons was 1999 and 2000. They made it in 2001, 2002, missed in 2003 (allowed them to pick 11th to get Big Ben), made it in 2004, 2005 (SB Champs), missed in 2006 (Cowher's last year), made it in 2007, 2008 (SB Champs), missed in 2009, made it in 2010 (SB runner-up), 2011 (we'll call this playoff debacle the Tebow coming out party) and missed it in 2012.
So chances are, based on their track record over the past decade, the Steelers will rebound and make the playoffs again (from this writing to the football God's ears). The division has two other really good teams in Cincinnati and Baltimore, so it will not be easy.
Yes, they had a solid draft. Jarvis Jones, LeVeon Bell (when he returns from his injury) and Markus Wheaton are all expected to contribute this season.
What has made the Steelers successful, and why they rarely make a splash in free agency, is that they have drafted well enough such that when players get older, they generally have a young productive player to take his place. They don't have to keep aging players who are well past their prime (you can not be sentimental in building and sustaining a roster). Thus they have been able to continually transition their roster w/o seeing long stretches of poor seasons. The Steeler player personnel department has been really good at knowing when the right time to not re-sign a player...better a year early than a year late.
This season, however, will be a true test to that theory because they do have an older defensive roster. They have not found younger replacements for players like Polamalu, Ryan Clark, Bret Keisel, Ike Taylor, Larry Foote. Time will tell if they have miscalculated their evaluation of these older players. They really need a few of these recent high draft picks, as we like to say, to sit at the adult table. Its professional football. The honeymoon period for players like Ziggy Hood and Cameron Heyward has long past. On the offensive side, their offensive line is in transition, but it too consists of many high draft picks. They need them to gel quickly to hopefully improve upon a woeful rushing attack.
But, in the end, the Steelers have Big Ben. If you have a franchise QB, you will always be in the playoff mix. It is why teams are desperate to find (and often overpay) for signal callers.
They cover a lot of mistakes and deficiencies on your roster. It's not by accident that Tom Brady and Peyton Manning (the two playing legends) have their teams in the playoffs virtually every year.
-- Modified on 9/4/2013 2:02:27 AM
