Best-case scenario

[Greg Lloyd]

1.) That Deuce really has woken up and that he put his size 11 shoe up the arse of Tomlin, telling him "enough is enough." No more favoritism to your "buddies," every coach and player must pull their own weight and be accountable. It will not matter who is "buddies" with Tomlin, all moves will be based on performance, including the punter, QB and assistant coaches. And this is final. No exceptions.

2.) There will be a real QB competition, one where the winner earns the right to be the starter. The triumperent of Art, Kahn and Tomlin claimed there will be a real competition, so create one, a real one, one where the best performer wins the starting job. If Mason is re-signed and outplays Kenny, then Mason will be the starter. If it's another vet QB, such as Tannehill, and he wins the starting job, then he will be QB 1. If a rookie shocks everyone and plays the best, then he will be QB 1. (I know, I know, the odds of this in Pgh is about zilch, but Ben did make it so in 2004, so...) The most likely scenario is a QB group of Kenny, a middling vet (Mason or Tannehill) and a lowly-rated rookie. That's probably what we are looking at.

3.) The offense and play calling is truly left up to the OC, not just a proxy of Shades, who will be terrified into calling a game ridiculously "safe" with almost no passes to the middle of the field until the 4th quarter and only if we are losing. Arthur Smith called effective games in TN in 2020 behind only KC (and tied with the Bills at 6,343 yards), with Henry at RB and Tannehill at QB. Our D won't know what to do paired with an offense so productive.

4.) The entire team experiences renascence and a winning attitude ensues, where players feel like their efforts are noticed and rewarded. The immature attitudes are wiped away with a fresh, winning deportment. The players react to the new team attitude and play for each other, not as child-like, selfish players.

5.) Last year's rookies continue to impress as JPJ, Jones, Benton, Herbig and even Washington continue to develop and 2024 rookies contribute somewhat with a new OC, CB and NT adding to the team production.

 

[diver]

Sometimes I don't understand your duality. You don't think Kenny is the guy, but then rip Tomlin for not throwing passes to the middle of the field. If Pickett isn't that good, why would you throw passes to the middle of the field? Now, as the why there wasn't a real competition or why Rudolph wasn't playing, I think I have an idea what Tomlin was doing, but it was dumb. I think he wanted a QB that more fit Canada's system, whatever that was, and Pickett was thought to be it.

I don't buy the "buddies" thing. I think it is more of the fact that Tomlin gets to know these young men and knows their situations. He has some empathy for them, like Harvin with his Dad and such, and granted, maybe holds on too long. But the "buddies" thing is unnecessary.

Your 4th point is where I am most negative about players in general. I'm not sure you can flesh out a team and not have child-like, selfish players. I am afraid it is where we are today. They have to manage it better. How? Idk, but they better find a way. With NILs in college, I just think the selfish, me first attitudes are only gonna get worse.

I hope they get a good young center somewhere in the mix, but I agree about CB and DL. I really don't want them to throw resources away on Justin Fields, but I really know nothing about Fields, either. Who cares about the Bears?

 

[steelhurt]

Look, the football team simply will not go anywhere as long as Art doesn’t hold Tomlin accountable and is willing to accept mediocre seasons. The team will remain stuck in the middle never bad enough to draft top five but never good enough to seriously compete with the good teams of which there are starting to be more of.
As I’ve said before, Tomlin is not a bad head coach but he’s not a top tier coach, and he’s one with lots of weaknesses
Tomlin is extremely instrumental in the construction of the Steelers football team both in the draft and FA and has had a lot of misses, but somehow manages to escape ridicule from his boss.
This organization lives in the past and thinks they are a player here and a player there from being serious contenders thus the owner who appears to be a very nice person but lives in a fantasy world.
He doesn’t understand that mediocre seasons keeps your team stuck in the middle and that the occasional bad season or two is actually a good thing and allows you to draft the Joe Burrows, Justin Herbert’s, Pat Mahomes, CJ Strouds.
I don’t know what Art’s son will be like but Steelernation has to hope that generation four will be much better and see the light. Art simply has zero clue!