Article in BTSC tells a tale that makes sense, if you ignore our recent drafts......any of this sound familiar ?
What's Wrong With The Steelers? Ask The Patriots!
Ah, entitlement. It's by definition an easy trap to fall into. In fact, you don't even have to fall into it; it's a trap that's built up around you while your team wins, and you find yourself stuck in when they start to lose. "What! These guys don't seem to be favorites for another Superbowl, this is unacceptable, fire them!" We've become so accustomed to dominance that we expect it to continue indefinitely. But that's not how it works in the NFL anymore.
Heck, that's not even how it worked in the NFL back in the halcyon days of yore. All good things come to an end. Even the Steel Curtain gave way to the Steelers of the 1980's. And parity is much more pronounced today. Just ask the Patriots, who could lay legitimate claim to the title "dynasty" through their consistent domination over the past 10 years plus with efficient quarterbacking, canny coaching, savvy personnel management, and shameless cheating. And now those Patriots are sitting with at 2-2 having lost a divisional matchup with a bad Dolphins team and been utterly demolished on national television by a fundamentally flawed and injury depleted Chiefs squad. The Patriots will be underdogs at home against the Bengals this Sunday. It's not just the past 4 games either. The Patriots once again made the playoffs last year, but their 12-4 record was supported by 5 victories by a FG or less and soft division, and their playoff appearance was once again brief. With such limited tools available as Julian Edelman and a broken down Gronkowski, there's no mistaking the fact that the Patriots are on the way down, not up.
You can blame the players for not executing. You can blame the coaches for not preparing. You can blame the GM for not acquiring talent. But there's another layer that's often overlooked. The players rely on their skills as tools of the trade, the coaches can only work with the players they're given, and (here's what's overlooked) the GM can only work with the tools he's given. The thing is, drafting in the bottom 3rd of the draft for 10 years in a row eventually takes it's toll, and holding together a veteran core makes it difficult to compete financially for free agents after that veteran core dissolves. The more success a team has the less they have to work with to build for the future. When good GM's and coaches start to struggle it's not because they've lost their edge, it's because the league is designed to handicap them in proportion to their success. Nobody can defy parity forever.
The Steelers are coming off a great run that earned them two Lombardi's and almost a third, and because of that they're fighting not just against other teams but also the handicaps imposed by the league on all good teams. The team managed to prevail against them for an unusually long time but it was inevitable that they would ultimately succumb. It's the life cycle of an NFL dynasty. What happened to the Steelers? No, it's not that Dick LeBeau got old or Kevin Colbert forgot how to draft. It's simply that the salary cap and reverse draft order did exactly what they're designed to, turn champions into 8-8 teams.
http://www.behindthesteelcurtain.co...hats-wrong-with-the-steelers-ask-the-patriots
