Don’t sleep on the New England Patriots swooping in and scooping up Justin Fields, leaving the Steelers with Kyle Trask. That’s because the NFL is a literal arms race. It’s all about the passer. But here your Pittsburgh Steelers sit with a plethora of needs, eight picks in the NFL draft, the first of which is at slot 24. Quarterbacks abound in this draft, but the top five, including Fields, could be off the board in the first 10 to 12 picks. The clearest message the tight-lipped Steelers brass h...
Apr 28, 2021•17 min
Word that Steelers’ Coach Mike Tomlin is now signed through the 2024 season ignited the typical polarized Pittsburgh reaction. According to the fiery arguments among Steel City fans, Tomlin is either the best of coaches, or among the worst of them. If you focus on Tomlin’s gaudy regular season win percentage, he’s right up there with the NFL’s elite. Should you be among those who choose to dwell on Tomlin’s recent abysmal playoff performance, it’s another story: three wins in the last decade des...
Apr 21, 2021•22 min
No one yet knows who’ll be catching NFL passes from Ohio State quarterback Justin Fields. Should the prodigal passer begin to fall in the NFL draft later this month, the Steelers should play his receiver -- and be there to catch him. Yes, holes in the Steelers’ 2021 roster are great and they are many, as Chuck Noll would say. And while they’ve swung a cap-friendly deal to keep Big Ben Roethlisberger around another season to two, they saw the same Ben who came up so small down the stretch, squand...
Apr 14, 2021•19 min
When reports surfaced that Texans quarterback Deshaun Watson was disgruntled down in Houston and clamoring for a high-profile trade to another team, more than a few Steelers fans piped up in Pittsburgh that their favorite football team should make the deal, whatever the cost. Flashforward a couple of months, and now Watson is embroiled in an ugly sexual scandal that could lead to his lengthy suspension by the NFL -- not to mention personal lawsuits and perhaps even criminal proceedings. This sta...
Apr 07, 2021•18 min
All of Pittsburgh, it seems, has the Steelers’ ponying up a first-round pick on a running back to revive the team’s moribund ground game, which last season resembled a grave where running plays went to die. Even Steelers President Art Rooney II is on record saying the Steelers must run the ball far better in 2021. Surely, that translates into Kevin Colbert, Mike Tomlin and company picking the likes of Alabama’s ball carrier, Najee Harris, right? Then why were Colbert and Tomlin at Ohio State’s p...
Mar 31, 2021•17 min
Chase Claypool apparently kicking a man who is down isn’t just a bad look. It could be highly problematic with regards to the NFL Conduct policy. Worse it’s a troubling sign Claypool is headed down the wrong path that’s been frequented by Steelers’ receivers of late. The band leader for bad behavior was Antonio Brown. But many critical of the JuJu Smith-Schuster re-signing cite his attention to Instagram, social media and TikTok videos -- rather than focusing on the football field. JuJu’s has ha...
Mar 24, 2021•19 min
Sadly, it’s the Steelers way: Stand back while your team hemorrhages talent to the highest bitter. The Steelers’ brain trust has long viewed NFL free agency as Bizarro World. Free-spending teams pony up insane prices for top players, only to see their collection of high-priced spare parts fail to perform as a winning team on the field. This knock on free agency was especially true when fat-pocketed football idiots like Daniel Snyder we’re bidding up prices. Slapped-together clubs like the Washin...
Mar 17, 2021•17 min
It’s only the most important position on the football field. Why shouldn’t monopolize all those mock drafts being floated around that have the Steelers snatching a top quarterback in 2021 NFL draft? On the same week that Ben Roethlisberger celebrated his 39th birthday, the Steelers were being linked to Ohio State quarterback Justin Fields. Other intriguing Pittsburgh quarterback possibilities include Mac Jones out of Alabama and Kyle Trask out of Florida. But simply plugging in a quarterback doe...
Mar 03, 2021•20 min
Just when you thought an aging Ben Roethlisberger was out, the Steelers blink and pull him back in. After 17 mostly glorious seasons, it should have come to this instead: A messy but ultimately necessary divorce for Ben Roethlisberger and the Steelers, which I detail in the podcast. That's because it certainly sounded as if Steelers’ General Manager Kevin Colbert was ready to move on from Big Ben last week. Consider Colbert’s terse words as he talked so very coldly about the once darling relatio...
Feb 24, 2021•18 min
When it comes to a Watt Brothers reunion in Pittsburgh, there’s a lot of heat, but not a lot of light. You have T.J. Watt all but begging his brother to sign with the Steelers, uniting those two and fullback Derek Watt in black and gold. And what football franchise wouldn’t want to unite this Wisconsin football family? The mere prospect has Steelers’ fans lighting it up on social media. It is high-wattage Watt mania, 24/7. Even the famous sandwich chain Primanti Bros., which perfected the Pittsb...
Feb 17, 2021•17 min
It wasn’t just that Steelers’ nemesis Tom Brady single-handedly bested the entire Pittsburgh football franchise by achieving his seventh Super Bowl win. The Steelers have just six Lombardis. And it wasn’t watching Brady’s been-there, done-that cool, as the 43-year-old quarterback played the Kansas City Chief defense like a fiddle in his 10th Super Bowl appearance. It wasn’t even witnessing Brady connect with one of the greatest Steelers receivers -- and one of the most troubled -- for a touchdow...
Feb 10, 2021•19 min
The L.A. Rams just showed what it takes to go all in for a Super Bowl. The Rams are a peaking team full of offensive weapons and a dominate defense in its prime. The missing ingredient? A quarterback capable of taking them there. Sound familiar? Well, that’s where the similarities end, Steelers fans. As Pittsburgh debates the proper end of the Ben Roethlisberger era, the Rams did whatever it took to get Matt Stafford to take them to the pigskin promised land. The Rams broke the bank, dealing two...
Feb 03, 2021•16 min
Aaron Rodgers, Matthew Stafford, Dwayne Haskins: Visions of new starting quarterbacks in Pittsburgh are dancing in the heads of Steelers fans. So what’s football fact and what is fan fantasy? Rodgers is fresh from being vanquished from the playoffs by Tom Brady (with his new team). Worse, Rodgers remains miffed the Packers drafted a quarterback instead of a receiver in the first round of 2020’s draft. Now, he’s openly debating his uncertain future in Green Bay, saying: “A lot of guys’ futures, t...
Jan 27, 2021•15 min
Wednesday saw a major changing of the guard. No, I am not talking about the U.S. presidency. I’m speaking of the retirement of Roethlisberger’s draft mate, Philip Rivers. Rivers is heeding Old Man River in joining fellow 2004 draftee Elie Manning in the post-football world, where the water is fine. And Rivers looked a heck of a lot better than Ben Roethlisberger going down the stretch this season. Next, we’ll witness the departure of Drew Brees, whose impending retirement is the worst-kept secre...
Jan 20, 2021•16 min
It’s now painfully clear the Steelers have the worst quarterback in the AFC North. The Steelers division rivals all possess young, up-and-coming QBs. Two were taken at the top of recent drafts, and the third was a steal at the bottom of the first round. The Steelers have an aging, diminished Big Ben Roethlisberger. Yet what comes after Ben is even scarier for Steelers Nation. Just ask your father or grandfather about the dark years. Those sorry Steelers seasons without a franchise Hall of Famer,...
Jan 13, 2021•19 min
The NFL playoffs are marked by legendary but bizarre games. You got the Fog Bowl, the Ice Bowl and now we have the COVID Bowl. The Cleveland Browns are limping into Pittsburgh with their supposedly genius head coach and a growing list of players on quarantine due to the coronavirus. The depleted Cleveland team has Steelers Nation brimming with confidence ahead of Sunday night’s Wild Card game -- despite the Steelers losing to this very team last Sunday by a score of 24-22. But the mere fact the ...
Jan 06, 2021•17 min
Troy Polamalu is an enigma. He just might be the closest things pro football has ever had to a superhero. He off-the-field alter-ego, however, is meeker and milder than Clark Kent. He had supernatural ability to immediately diagnose, then blow up an opposing team’s play. He vaulted over the line of scrimmage and tackled the quarterback nanoseconds after the snap. He took a flying leap to snatch a fluttering football from the snowy Heinz Field turf just in time. And he would jump, arms reaching s...
Dec 22, 2020•17 min
Ask not for whom the bell tolls. It tolls for Big Ben Roethlisberger, the Steelers QB nicknamed after the famous London clock tower. Steelers Nation is populated by a significant number of spoiled fans once-relishing a perfect season but now turning on their Hall of Fame quarterback. Many are seemingly ready to write off Big Ben after two-straight losses. To be sure, Big Ben looked bad in the beatdown by the Buffalo Bills. Roethlisberger’s diminished skills were on full, agonizing display on tha...
Dec 16, 2020•19 min
December could prove to be the cruelest month once again for these Steelers. If so, it will be because the seeds of the Steelers’ offensive implosion were sewn back in August. That’s when a surgically repaired Big Ben Roethlisberger first showed signs his deep ball wasn’t there anymore. He and the Steelers have shied away from it ever since. Now, it’s all coming home to roost, threatening to ruin a special season.Big Ben and the boys have lost their identity on offense. The team can’t run, and n...
Dec 09, 2020•20 min
When does a Steelers win, even over the hated Ravens, fell like a loss? When you drop passes all over Heinz Field, fumble a punt, give up a long touchdown pass to the third-string QB – and most of all when you lose your relentless pass rusher, Bud Dupree, to a season-ending knee injury. This stomach-turning Steelers win feels like a major turning point in Pittsburgh’s here-to-fore euphoric season. Where it goes from here, is anyone’s guess. But it’s also in the hands of the Steelers’ players – m...
Dec 03, 2020•16 min
The running game has long been sacred for the Pittsburgh Steelers. Absent a running game, the Steelers offense -- indeed it’s entire football philosophy -- just didn’t work. Until now. Until Big Ben Roethlisberger, wise and wily in his 17th season and seeing the field like never before, can dump off the football at will. Until these four Horsemen of the Apocalypse for NFL defenses. I’m talking about the wide receivers who make the most of every catch, no matter how short the so-called pass trave...
Nov 18, 2020•17 min
Pop a Prozac, Pittsburgh. Football warning signs are flashing brightly and loudly in the 412 area code about these far-from perfect 8-0 Steelers, who seem to be flirting with their first loss week in and week out. Yes, I’m talking about the real risk of this supposedly perfect team losing to the better-than-advertised Joe Burrow-led Bengals at Heinz Field this Sunday. The biggest worry centers on Big Ben, who is in COVID quarantine this week and won’t be able to practice. Roethlisberger could be...
Nov 11, 2020•16 min
The Steelers’ big win in Baltimore has celebrating players rapping along to what’s now being billed as the 7-0 team’s official song: ‘Take Over Your Trap’ by the late Bankroll Fresh. The lyrics that are printable do show why the song has struck a chord with the Steelers. This, after the team walked into the Big Crabcake on a rainy, cold Un-Charm City Sunday and proceeded to pick off MVP Lamar Jackson and company for an absolutely rapturous and rap-worthy 28-24 win. Whatever trap the Ravens thoug...
Nov 04, 2020•15 min
Big Ben Roethlisberger’s trio of troubling interceptions vs. the Titans ended up costing the Steelers points on long drives – but luckily not the too-close-for-comfort 27-24 contest. The lingering effect of those picks could be the proof that Big Ben isn’t the same gun-slinging Steelers quarterback of old. The new Ben isn’t the same as the old Ben. The difference could be big, as in the absence of his once signature long-ball. Not only has been rare this season – it’s been off on a growing numbe...
Oct 28, 2020•16 min
Pittsburgh’s proud pro football tradition was never just about the pigskin. It was about the community of fans that came to be known as Steelers Nation. It was the connection between town, team and stadium section mates that became strong as steel. It was the communion of excitement, shared experience and common purpose that brought together that cacophony of raised voices to chant the same, familiar refrain: “Here we go Steelers. Here we go!” But on Sunday, as the Steelers renewed their Turnpik...
Oct 21, 2020•21 min
What’s worse than being forced by COVID-19 to take your bye in Week 4? For the Steelers, it’s watching the Cleveland Browns offense break out with 49 points against the Dallas Cowboys.But it’s not just the Browns. Offenses across the NFL are scoring like crazy. Yet, the Steelers, under a surgically repaired Ben Roethlisberger and despite plenty of weapons around him, have yet to really break out. So what’s holding back the Steelers as they prepare to take on the Philadelphia Eagles in what’s dub...
Oct 07, 2020•16 min
It’s now clear this coronavirus-shrouded NFL season will be a game of attrition and a survival of the fittest. With COVID-19 striking at least three players and five coaches on the Tennessee Titans as they prepare to meet the Steelers in the Music City Sunday, the real rules for this season like no other are emerging. One thing stands clear above all else: The NFL desperately wants to play the games as scheduled. They don’t want to be postponing, canceling or shuffling the NFL schedule, which cu...
Sep 30, 2020•16 min
The Steelers defense is suffering from a serious case of split personality. In one respect, they’re on a record pace for pressuring quarterbacks, blitzing relentlessly and playing highly aggressive. The result has been sacks, interceptions and fumbles – all great! But then there’s the other side of this conflicted Steelers defense. This is the permissive personality that is allowing opponents with less-than-impressive quarterbacks to mount long drives and put up big plays. It all makes for some ...
Sep 23, 2020•15 min
The Steelers look good on the field, but they’re facing a big backlash over their divided social justice stand off of it.It was a mixed message to say the least. The Steelers high profile Monday Night Football attempt to stand united against racism was seemingly sabotaged by a war-hero left tackle. With the rest of the team wearing the name of Pittsburgh-area police shooting victim Antwon Rose Jr. on their helmets, Afghanistan war vet and Army Ranger Alejandro Villanueva seemingly went rogue. He...
Sep 16, 2020•19 min
For the Steelers, it’s long been a frustrating tale of two units -- offense and defense. During the best of times for the offense, the defense was in tatters and full of holes. Swiss cheese, instead of the Steel Curtain. When the defense shined last season, the offense crumbled, along with quarterback Ben Roethlisberger’s throwing elbow. But for the first time in a long time, both sides of the football appear to be in nearly top form for the 2020 season. I give you all the best reasons why the 2...
Sep 02, 2020•19 min
