I was a Steelers fan and Mike Tomlin fan until last year. I couldn’t get behind signing Qaaren Rodgers as the QB. Please forgive me if this is comment is kind of me saying goodbye to the team.

I spent last season not paying attention to the sport at all. I do miss it- following all the draft coverage, the spring training reports, seeing the shaking of the roster through pre-season. Following the season- the development, changes, setbacks, injuries, trades.

I was considering watching again if Rodgers retired or went elsewhere. Tomlin stepping down makes the team way less interesting, but I was still kind of paying attention to coaching search. For them to hire McCarthy is just… Lame. An old guy who has already proved that he’s neither a great nor terrible coach. A known middling guy. A safe hire.

It feels like the FO is still living in 2010. As if it’s mostly the same team and with just a few minor updates they can get back to the SuperBowl. And who better to lead then than the guys who beat them the last time like Rodgers and McCarthy? Surely everything is the same as it was 15 years ago, right?

Feels similar to, but even worse than, the Arthur Smith hire. Safe. Kind of reminds me of a lot of their personnel moves too. Jalen Ramsey, Jonny Smith, Cordarrelle Patterson, DK Metcalf, Darius Slay, Patrick Peterson, McCoyle Pruitt, Van Jefferson, Scotty Miller, Mike Williams, Larry Ogunjobi, Patrick Queen, Donte Jackson, Cam Sutton, Keanu Neal, Joe Schoebert, Myles Jack, Juan Thornhill. It’s all been about taking guys who they really liked in the draft proces. Doesn’t matter if their first handful of years in the league were just mediocre. Doesn’t matter if they’re >30 years old as a DB who USED to be great. It seems so rare for young guys to be able to come in and even see the field.

I remember after the last draft, when I was still following the team closely, and everyone was talking about how Kaleb Johnson was going to be a perfect fit and was already ready to start. People were predicting he would push Warren to the bench and surpass anything Najee Harris did. I don’t know what happened, but I see he only got 28 carries last year and I don’t see any reports of him dealing with injury. Seems he was just a healthy scratch.

Now looking at the roster… Who would I even root for or be excited about? Cam Heyward is hopefully retiring, and TJ Watt should demand a trade. There’s a couple of interesting young players (Herbig, High Smith, the o-line, Harmon, Darnelle Washington) but nowhere near enough to merit watching them. I guess the roster will have a lot of room and they will be adding people this summer but I don’t have any hope.

Khan doesn’t seem to know what he’s doing. Colbert lost the plot several years before he retired. I’ve seen a lot of people point to Dan Rooney dying in 2017 as a significant down turning point for the franchise. I’m kind of skeptical of how much he was involved at that point, but the timing does work out.

Love to see it lmao

Stillers gonna to da 9-8 Superbowl!

What an unserious franchise.

Loooolll

welp, here comes a bunch of shitty seasons in a row.

Return of the Mac

Seems like a side-grade rather than an upgrade