Of course Dan was still there, he was technically still a face of the organization. But he was 70 years old and Art2 had been taking more and more duties until in 2003 when Dan ceded full day to day operations to him. At which time Dan did what his father did, met with players, coaches, staff, and all the personnel to enjoy the relationships he has made with the people there and assist his son when he asked. When Dan crashed his plane at Latrobe airport during the 2002 Training Camp, it is told that his wife gave him a earful that it’s time to start enjoying themselves with their grandchildren. Bouchette or Pruista even said Patricia had a frying pan in her hand when Dan arrived back from his crash (he was fine) to show how serious she was and for the scare he gave her. That is probably when the decision was put in motion.
As for how Cowher would have done with a franchise QB, this has been argued ad nauseam. Cowher’s never wanted a franchise QB, he had his QB with NOD, but unfortunately he took the money with the NYJ. Had he stayed, I’d contend Cowher probably would have made it back to the AFCC and have a better chance in a second SB. Cowher‘s offensive philosophy was the Perkins/Schottenheimer scheme of ball control rushing attack, with play action passing, win the game with defense. Since NOD left, Cowher had ample opportunities to get better than the Tomczak/Miller/Graham show before having some modicum of success with Kordell, until Cowher’s selection of OCs (Sherman, Gilbride) destroyed any hope with him being more than he was. He did later select Mularkey and then Whiz who used a insurance salesman/former journeyman to turn the offense into an aerial showcase first, then rushing attack to close out games. Then came Ben, who by the way, Cowher was not interested in selecting at first (Stacey Andrews was they player he wanted). It wasn’t until Dan who still sat in the War Room kept directing the discussion between Colbert and Cowher back to Ben, and passing up a QB (like he did with Marino haunted him) at such a high level pick may not be a smart decision for the future. The rest is history. Hell, even when Maddox got hurt and Ben started, Whiz kept him on a short leash - strict orders from Cowher so as to not deviate from the game plan. But he kept making great throws and had superb improv skills, that the leash had more slack by the time they were in the playoffs. So Cowher, was different, but had the same success as Tomlin has. Tomlin having Ben, makes no difference, because Chin didn’t think he needed a franchise QB. He DID think he needed a franchise RB and OL, and he routinely did get those players (Dawson, Bettis, Faneca, etc..) to facilitate his preferred offensive philosophy.
