State of the Franchise - Pittsburgh Steelers

State of the Franchise – Pittsburgh Steelers

2017 Record: 13–3

Last Playoff Appearance: 2017

Coach: Mike Tomlin 116–60

GM: Kevin Colbert

2017 Performance

The 2017 Steelers’ season is a season dedicated to their late chairman Dan Rooney and Ryan Shazier, their inside linebacker who suffered a devastating spinal injury, which ended short of a rematch with the New England Patriots in the AFC championship game, let alone a seventh Lombardi.

That was not easy to accept for the Steelers - a team with three All-Pros and six Pro Bowl picks. Considered by many to be the NFL's most talented roster. Steelers inside linebacker Vince Williams wasn't about to sugar-coat it either; he said there was "definitely a sense" the Steelers underachieved.

The Steelers clinched the AFC North division title for the second consecutive season with a 39–38 win over the Baltimore Ravens in Week 14 and secured a first-round playoff bye for the first time since 2010 following a 34–6 win over the Houston Texans in Week 16. In the Divisional Round, however, the Steelers lost to the Jacksonville Jaguars by a score of 45–42 after falling behind 28–14 at halftime.

After their loss, the Steelers were criticized for looking past the Jaguars and anticipating a rematch with the New England Patriots. With a record of 13–3, the Steelers posted their best mark since 2004.

A season that started with Super Bowl aspirations, one filled with incredible comebacks and last-minute victories, ended with a touchdown in the final second. Yet, there was no celebration from JuJu Smith-Schuster, the rookie receiver who had turned touchdowns into viral video sensations.

How could a Steelers defense give up 45 points at home to a team with no passing attack? During the first 12 weeks of the season, the Steelers gave up just 265.3 yards per game and 16.1 points per game. From Week 13 on, after Shazier suffered his terrifying injury against the Bengals on a Monday night, including their Divisional Round playoff loss to the Jags, the Steelers gave up 350.8 yards per game and 26.7 points per game. The difference is startling - Shazier should have been

in the DPOY conversation before his injury and replacing him will be difficult.

Credit Roethlisberger and the offense for stepping things up after Shazier's injury - the Steelers averaged 21.5 points per game before the Bengals matchup and 31.7 from that week on helping the Steelers nearly land the top seed in the AFC. Keith Butler is a good defensive coordinator and the Steelers have plenty of talent on defense, but they'll need a full season of Roethlisberger playing like an MVP candidate to replicate their success.

2018 Roster Moves

Despite not being considered a first-round pick by many analysts, Terrell Edmunds offers an improvement to a secondary which was in need of an upgrade. General manager Kevin Colbert said Edmunds was the best player remaining on their board at No. 28.

The Steelers were quick to replace the traded Martavis Bryant with WR James Washington with the 60th pick in the draft. The Steelers will be hoping their 2018 second-round pick will prove to be as shrewd as their 2017 second-round WR JuJu Smith-Schuster – statistically the most successful rookie receiver in the regular season.

With a 36-year-old QB who openly spoke about his thoughts of retirement this time last year, it may not come as a surprise to everyone that the Steelers traded up to land a promising QB in the third round. The addition of Mason Rudolph may have agitated Big Ben, and he made no secret of his disapproval of the pick. Roethlisberger could stick around for at least another three years, so Rudolph slipping to the 3rd round made his selection easier to justify.

The focus of the Pittsburgh Steelers offseason was largely dictated towards keeping, bringing back, franchise-tagging or just in general, the future of star RB Le’Veon Bell with the franchise. They slapped the franchise tag on Bell as the sides either work on a contract or allow this season to play out, but freeing Pittsburgh to work on other moves in the offseason outside of Bell. Most notably, veteran safety Morgan Burnett enters the fold in the secondary for the Steelers, an area that was severely lacking a season ago.

Former Colts LB Jon Bostic also comes in, giving Pittsburgh another body to help fill the hole left by the tragic injury to LB Ryan Shazier. Pittsburgh’s roster is not whole by any means as they lost offensive tackle Chris Hubbard to divisional rival Cleveland, S Robert Golden to Kansas City and CB William Gay to the Giants in free agency.

2018 Expected Starters

QB – Ben Roethlisberger

RB – Le'Veon Bell

WR – Antonio Brown, Juju Smith-Schuster, James Washington

TE – Jesse James

LT – Alejandro Villanueva

LG – Ramon Foster

C – Maurkice Pouncey

RG – David DeCastro

RT – Marcus Gilbert

DE – Cameron Heyward, Stephon Tuitt

DT – Javon Hargrave, Daniel McCullers-Sanders

LB – Bud Dupree, Jonathan Bostic, Vince Williams, T.J. Watt

S – Morgan Burnett, Terrell Edmunds

CB – Joe Haden, Artie Burns,

K – Chris Boswell

P – Jordan Berry

LS – Kameron Canaday

2018 Outlook

It is getting harder to defend the Steelers: there appears to be so many different stories coming out every day painting a picture of unrest in Pittsburgh. Such stories seem to focus on the big three names on the offense (Big Ben, Brown and Bell). But it is the defense which is greater cause for concern going into the 2018 season; they gave up 45 points to the Jags at home in a playoff game last.

They have lost Shazier to a horrific injury and he will not be easy to replace. The addition of first-round draft pick Edmunds and TJ Watt continuing to develop after a promising rookie season is a step in the right direction to ensure a postseason prematurely ended by conceding 45 points against a team with no passing attack is not repeated.

It is undeniable that the Steelers’ roster is filled with so much talent; the Steelers arguably have a Pro Bowl-calibre player at every position on offense other than the tight end -- and even there, Jesse James is an emerging player. It's tough to find a more imposing set of triplets than Ben Roethlisberger at QB, Le'Veon Bell at RB and Antonio Brown at WR.

Losing linebacker Ryan Shazier to injury does really set the defense back, but the unit still features studs like Cameron Heyward, Stephon Tuitt and T.J. Watt. Defensive backs coach Tom Bradley, meanwhile, is going to further help the defense - he could be a coordinator somewhere.

Mike Tomlin doesn't get enough credit for the last four years, in which the Steelers have won at least 10 games every single year. That's hard to do. It might be harder this year, but it's certainly doable. If the division is bad again - think: Bengals can't protect Andy Dalton, Joe Flacco plays 16 games and the Browns go full Browns - the Steelers should get at minimum four wins there, maybe more. It's hard to see them sweeping at home with the

Pats/Panthers/Chargers/Falcons/Chiefs coming to town, but if they can win three or four of those games, that means they just need to win a couple of non-division road games.

The issue for Pittsburgh is they've been bad in those spots, losing in Chicago last year and have a history of doing it every year. The offense is going to put together at a minimum half a season of high-level play, assuming that Roethlisberger, Le'Veon Bell and Antonio Brown are all healthy. Martavis Bryant is gone, but JuJu Smith-Schuster made him expendable and rookie James Washington can make an impact as well. If the defense gets the middle cleared up and the defensive front led by Cameron Heyward is as scary as it can be, this is as good a team as there is in the AFC, right there with the Patriots. Winning 12-plus games shouldn't be a surprise.

Bottom Line

This is not a team that will be prone to regression, at least to a huge degree. They will be good due to the offense. It would be surprising if the Steelers weren't the division winners, especially with the other three AFC North teams looking like they could struggle. But I can also envision a scenario where the offense lacks consistency, like last year, and the defense can't fill the large hole that Shazier's absence creates.

This has been a slow-starting offense at times, they're going to be working with a new offensive coordinator and Le'Veon Bell is going to hold out until the last second. It might take a little bit of time before everything really clicks.

Pittsburgh using a second-round pick on a wide receiver who likely won't make a huge impact in 2018 (James Washington, behind a lot of other mouths that need to be fed) and a third-rounder on a quarterback they hope doesn't play for three years means not using impact draft picks on positions of need.