One thing not mentioned in the above article is the Steelers' rather lackluster drafts of late. There have been more misses than hits and it seems to be the pattern since Kevin Colbert retired as GM back in 2021.
I think the Steelers are also paying the price for not having a succession plan in place after Big Ben retired. Todd Haley, who hosts a sports talk show on Sirius XM (Channel 88, I think), was recently talking about when he was the OC at Pittsburgh and they would discuss this topic every year when it was apparent Ben was at the end of his career. But the Steelers just never took it seriously. They kept looking for that next great defensive stud in the draft instead of their next franchise quarterback. As a result, they wound up with guys like T.J. Watt and Ryan Shazier (whose career was tragically cut short), but whiffed on a number of others. This, in turn, forced them to overreach for the likes of Kenny Pickett and then this year try and piece together the position with Russell Wilson and Justin Fields.
They've probably done themselves a disservice by doubling down on defense so heavily. For the decade spanning 2011 to 2020, nine of Pittsburgh's top draft picks have been on defense. Then they've gone and handed out handsome extensions to Watt, Minkah Fitzpatrick and others. And we all know they poached Patrick Queen from the Ravens and made him the highest-paid outside free agent in the team's history. For all that money spent on that side of the ball (a league-high $137 million in cap space for defense in 2024), they not getting the bang for the buck that they need. In their last three playoff losses, they've been gashed by Patrick Mahomes, Josh Allen and last night by Lamar.
Tomlin isn't blameless, obviously, but it appears as if the Steelers' defense-first philosophy now has them drafting for need rather than the BPA strategy that teams like themselves and the Ravens deploy so effectively. When you're forced to select via the former, more mistakes are almost guaranteed to happen.
