I hope you all saw the Tomlin press conference last week because it’s probably
the most revealing and honest press conference he’s given in many years. I
think it was very telling, this was a man who knows he has an extension in his
back pocket and yet, he seemed to be chastened in some ways. The end of the
season often brings clarity, as Parcells always said, you are what your record
says you are and that brings things into sharp focus.
I know that whereas he still has the full support of the Rooney’s, several of
the minority owners and partners have been questioning the direction of certain
things. Also, I'm confident in my belief that having seen some of the answers
to questions he was asked in the presser that during the exit interviews with
certain senior players that he’s been hearing their thoughts as well and
they’ve been forthright in pointing out where things went wrong this year, too.
He said that ‘we can’t do the same things and expect a different result’ and
that he’s open and willing to change.
And I am reassured that things are going to change. They have to. When players
from Najee to Minkah to Diontae are calling out some of the things that went on
in the locker room this season and saying things have to change, they have to
change and I really think Tomlin gets that. He knows that outside hires are
needed and the culture of promoting from within has to change. He spoke about
adding to the offensive staff - the Steelers still have one of the smaller
coaching staffs in the league - so we’ll see where that goes.
He handled the questions about the QB position deftly. He knows that no one
will be anointed the starter and it sounds like for once that Latrobe won’t be
Club Med, with 20 starting positions already determined like it usually is and
there will be open competition. He supported Kenny, which is the right thing to
do. He wants to retain Mason, which is also the right thing to do. We’ll see
what transpires in the offseason and there are a lot of moving parts here from
players, to coaching to scheme, but he sees what the rest of us saw and that
was a positive too, because as we all know, we’ve wondered whether that was
truly the case or not in recent years.
There’s an offseason to go through now. The jigsaw puzzle has been emptied out
of it’s box and the pieces will slowly be put together, from the coaching staff
to which veterans and free agents retained to the draft and so on. It’s way too
early to start talking about many of these things, but the only thing I will
say is this is a very shallow draft. Teams often pick players from a pool of
150-200 players with “draftable” grades, but this year, that number will be in
the low end of that range. You’re going to see an awful lot of teams dumping
picks after round four because the players available carry the same grades as
free agents. It’s a thin class.
But I will say these two things and this is the point of this ramble.
- With Tomlin recognising his shortcomings and that things have to change and
having a desire to implement change both in house and by bringing in external
voices.
- Year one of the Omar Khan / Andy Weidl partnership is in the books and it was
in my eyes a success, they drafted well and they added veteran depth where it
was needed, both in the offseason and during the season when injuries hit and
you can bet your house on them reviewing what they did, fine tuning what they
did and building on it in year two. You can’t cure all ills and fill every hole
on the roster in an offseason, but they exceeded my high expectations and I
expect more in year two.
With these two things, I have never been more confident in the structure and
setup of this franchise in terms of the pieces being in place to rebuild this
team to compete at the highest level. Not since the Donahoe-Modrak era have the
Steelers had someone who is so in tune with building a deep, competitive roster
via the draft and free agency than they do with Andy Weidl on board. And the
head coach - finally - has recognised the need for things to change, he sees
what we all see and it’s up to him now to implement that change. It’s now about
staying the course that is set out before them, sure there are questions and
they have to address the key one which is to build an offense which still bears
the scars inflicted on it by the Canada era, but believe me when I say that I’m
very confident they are on the right path here, they have the right people and
process in place to build a winning team again.
I don’t know where it leads, you look around the loaded AFC and wonder where
the Steelers fit in and there are still lots of questions to be answered, most
notably at the QB position, but to have a season that was filled with such
trial and tribulation and still scrape into the playoffs, to have seen a strong
performance from a good rookie class, to see the front office find veterans to
come in and contribute in a major way, I think that this team culturally is in
better shape and has a brighter future than many people think. As someone who
has more of an interest in how teams build rosters and how teams instil a
winning culture in the NFL in this day and age, I’m excited by the future of
this team and the direction they are heading in.
