Sports blog information from USA TODAY.
These six Steelers disappointed us more than any others last season.
Depending on who you ask, the Pittsburgh Steelers 2023 season was either a surprising success as the team overachieved or a miserable playoff failure. This is just more evidence that the season was a bit of both, thanks to terribly inconsistent play by many on the roster. Here are the guys we found the most disappointing from the 2023 season.
T.J. Watt teamed up with USAA and the DAV to send a military veteran and a guest to Super Bowl LVIII in Las Vegas.
Pittsburgh Steelers outside linebacker T.J. Watt teamed up with USAA, the official NFL Salute to Service partner, and Disabled American Veterans to send a military veteran and a guest to Super Bowl LVIII in Las Vegas.
Adam Alexander, a decorated Army veteran residing near Watt’s hometown in Wisconsin, is the lucky honoree.
Alexander, a Green Bay Packers fan, has a decorated service history, which includes being awarded the Purple Heart, Combat Action Badge and the Army Commendation Medal with Valor.
“Being a professional football player requires strength, resiliency, and selflessness – all inspiring characteristics that Staff Sgt. Adam Alexander embodies,” said Watt. “I’m honored to team up with USAA and Disabled American Veterans to give Adam, a fellow Wisconsinite and national hero, the recognition he deserves, and I look forward to meeting him at the Super Bowl in Las Vegas.”
Army vet SSGT Adam Alexander is living proof that those from the heartland have huge hearts! Along with @USAA and @DAVHQ, I’m honored to send a Purple Heart recipient and fellow Wisconsinite to #SuperBowlLVIII in Las Vegas #SaluteToService #ad pic.twitter.com/obMDuOgkKE
— TJ Watt (@_TJWatt) January 23, 2024
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Mike Sullivan could be a casualty of the Steelers staffing re-shuffle.
Mike Sullivan could be a casualty of the Pittsburgh Steelers staffing re-shuffle, according to Pittsburgh Post-Gazette’s Gerry Dulac.
After Matt Canada was given his walking papers midseason, Sullivan took over play-calling duties while Eddie Faulkner was named interim offensive coordinator.
While the offense showed sparks over their final four games, Dulac wrote that Sullivan isn’t likely to be retained “because of the potential awkwardness it could create with a new coordinator.”
The Steelers’ hunt for their next offensive coordinator, their first outside OC hire since Todd Haley in 2012, is underway. Keeping Sullivan on staff isn’t conducive to the dynamic they’ll look to create.
“No coordinator would want the coach who previously called the plays looking over his shoulder,” wrote Dulac.
Sullivan has served as Pittsburgh’s quarterbacks coach since 2021. There’s been no news about whether Faulkner will be retained as running backs coach.
Despite inconsistencies in offensive line play, Dulac expects Pat Meyer to be retained. In addition to line coaching duties, he serves as the team’s run game coordinator, installing run plays in the game plan.
The ground game has shown improvement in the two years since Meyer was brought on.
Najee Harris (1,035 yards) and Jaylen Warren (784) enjoyed the second-most (Lions’ David Montgomery-Jahmyr Gibbs) yards of any running back tandem in the NFL with 1,819 combined rushing yards.
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Joey Porter quickly became the Steelers best cornerback in 2023.
The Pro Football Writers of America put out its All-Rookie team and one member of the Pittsburgh Steelers made the team. the PFWA named Joey Porter Jr. as one of its cornerbacks, along with Seattle Seahawks cornerback Devon Witherspoon.
Two Steelers rookies who didn’t make the team were offensive tackle Broderick Jones and defensive tackle Keeanu Benton.
The PWFA went with Dawand Jones of the Cleveland Browns and Darnell Wright of the Chicago Bears instead. At defensive line, it was the Rams Kobie Turner and the Eagles Jalen Carter on the interior defensive line.
.@JoeyPorterJr has been named to the @PFWAwriters All-Rookie team 🙌
📝: https://t.co/Kw1qsfwj4F pic.twitter.com/PJx2if7u63
— Pittsburgh Steelers (@steelers) January 23, 2024
Pittsburgh got significant contributions from all three rookies also with rookie edge rusher Nick Herbig. Porter started 11 games in 2023 and quickly became the team’s No. 1 cover corner, shutting down he opposing team’s best receiver week after week.
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The Steelers landed two on the PFWA All-NFL team.
The Pro Football Writers of America put out their All-NFL team for the 2023 season and two members of the Pittsburgh Steelers made the cut. EDGE defender T.J. Watt made it for the fourth time and safety/special teams ace Miles Killebrew was named PFWA All-NFL for the first time.
Watt led the league in sacks in 2023. Watt finished with 19 sacks and is the first player to lead the league in sacks in three separate seasons since sacks have been counted as an official statistic.
Killebrew didn’t play much on defense but his contributions on social teams, in particular blocking kicks, made him elite among his peers.
Congratulations to Miles Killebrew and @_TJWatt for being named to the @PFWAwriters All-NFL team!
📝: https://t.co/qqVO2DcqFT pic.twitter.com/gXTV24Vr9x
— Pittsburgh Steelers (@steelers) January 22, 2024
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Patrick Peterson has one year remaining on his contract to the tune of $9.775 million.
As all non-playoff teams are this time of year, the Pittsburgh Steelers are making their way through exit interviews.
One player who’s gone through the process is Patrick Peterson.
Though he likely knows, Mike Tomlin only said that it’s too early to (publicly) make the call on whether he’ll return to Pittsburgh in 2024.
“I did meet with Pat (Peterson), we had a good exit interview,” Tomlin said in his season-end press conference. “I’m really appreciative of his experience and professionalism and who he is as a man and player, what he’s willing to do. But from a decision-making standpoint, we’re just really at the infancy of it all from that standpoint.”
The inevitable happens and players age. At 33, Peterson’s age was certainly on display this season, which led many to speculate if the Steelers will permanently move him to safety.
Of his 1,186 total defensive snaps, Peterson played 252 in the safety role, according to Pro Football Focus‘ advanced stats.
Peterson was initially brought in not only based on past experience but also as a mentor to the young defensive backs room. Joey Porter Jr. has shown he can hang with the big dogs and I think he’ll be just fine without him.
Per Over the Cap, Peterson’s remaining contract year carries a cap number of $9.775 million or 4% of the cap. Should the Steelers cut him before June 1, it’ll save $6.850 million with $2.925 million of dead money on the books.
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Mike Tomlin mismanaged Kenny Pickett from the start and now the Steelers are paying for it.
Kenny Pickett came into the NFL in an impossible situation. The Pittsburgh Steelers rookie quarterback was forced to work with offensive coordinator Matt Canada, who had zero experience in the pros before being promoted to the role one year prior.
So, a guy with no NFL experience took direction from a guy with only one more year than he had. Not ideal.
Pickett could only do what he needed — prepare for his rookie season as if he were the starter. Only Tomlin made that task a difficult one, butchering the quarterback plan from day one. It was his first foray into looking for a starting quarterback, and it showed. The “competition” that ensued heading into training camp was a sham. It was always Mitch Trubisky‘s job to lose, depriving Pickett of valuable reps and giving him no opportunity to build rapport with his receivers or offensive line.
Three weeks into his rookie season, Pickett was thrown to the wolves and expected to lead the team without any real offseason experience.
If Tomlin had given the reins to Pickett the moment he was drafted, we could be seeing a different result. Instead, he mismanaged the situation from the get-go and did so with a coordinator unworthy of his job.
“When you talk about personnel and mismanagement of personnel and development of personnel, that is also on the head coach,” CBS Sports’ Aditi Kinkhabwala said on former Steeler guard Trai Essex’s podcast “Pod Me Up.”
“You can sit here and say look at what he did with these players and certain things, but you can also say Matt Canada is at his feet. And entrusting a young quarterback to an offensive coordinator who had no experience and one could argue no standing to be an offensive coordinator in the National Football League, well ok, so chicken or egg?”
Tomlin made his bed. Now he has to lie in it. But not for long.
He has a daunting task ahead — the most critical hire in his 17 years with the team — find a high-caliber offensive coordinator who can attempt to mold Pickett into the quarterback they thought he could be as a first-round draft pick.
Hopefully, it’s not too late.
https://www.youtube.com/live/Vpi_fptFmSM?si=uSbL3vqxysJYssd6
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Cam Heyward is fed up with QBs deceiving defenses.
Josh Allen pulled some shady stuff in the Buffalo Bills wild card win over the Pittsburgh Steelers last week. And good for him for getting away with it.
But Cam Heyward thinks if it continues, it’ll ruin football.
“Not Just Football” co-host Hayden Walsh pressed Heyward about whether Allen’s play midway through the second quarter included a fake slide.
Heyward was careful about his words, likely because it wasn’t a fake slide in the true sense of the term. It was more of a hesitation and redirect to slow the defense down, or a deke, something Allen is known for doing — much to opponents’ dismay.
“You definitely see him slow down to alert [the defender] that he was gonna slide, but I don’t know what you’re supposed to do as a defender,” Heyward said when asked if there was a fake slide by Allen. “That happens, and then look at the ramifications of it, because then Myles Jack takes it in his hands, and he’s like, I have to go for him because he’s not giving himself up all the time.”
Jack, helped by a little Academy Award performance by Allen and some poor officiating, was flagged for roughing the passer — leading to a touchdown that was essentially the nail in Pittsburgh’s coffin.
Heyward didn’t name names, but quarterbacks like Patrick Mahomes have made famous the I’m-going-out-of-bounds-psych.
“We look to protect quarterbacks, but, man, you’re taking away from the game when you do that,” he said. “You get these quarterbacks that act like they’re going out of bounds, but then they skirt up the sideline, and they add more yards, but it’s like, man, as a quarterback, you should be trying to get down as soon as possible. If a quarterback turns on the gears and is running full tilt, he shouldn’t be given the clearance to just make a decision right then and there to either trick the ref or trick the team. I think it’s a load of crap.”
The refs did seem to favor the home team Bills, but that never seems to matter in the end because the final score is the final score, no matter how they call it.
"If a QB turns on the gears and is running full tilt, he shouldn't be given the clearance to just make a decision right then and there to either, trick the ref or trick the team. I think it's a load of crap." pic.twitter.com/Ql31FmtT4p
— Not Just Football (@NotJustFootball) January 19, 2024
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Maurkice Pouncey got wind of Mike Tomlin’s comment and responded in a touching way via Instagram.
In his 2023 season-ending press conference, Mike Tomlin admitted his biggest regret was not getting a Lombardi Trophy for the Pittsburgh Steelers when Maurkice Pouncey was a member of the Black and Gold.
“It’s probably one of my biggest regrets professionally that Maurkice Pouncey, for example, is not a world champion because that guy is,” Tomlin said when asked if there’s a sense of urgency to get Cam Heyward a ring. “So that is a motivating factor for me certainly, but continually, it is.”
Pouncey got wind of Tomlin’s comment and responded in a touching way via Instagram.
“Thank you Coach T means the world but Never regret it Coach You made me a champion at life Im forever thankful!”
Pouncey, who entered the league one season before Heyward, was a rookie when Pittsburgh lost to the Green Bay Packers in Super Bowl XLV.
The Steelers made six more postseason appearances in Pouncey’s career, losing in the wild card round three times.
Pouncey on IG: “Never regret it coach, you made me a champion at life” https://t.co/wxgpfIHmrN pic.twitter.com/LSyEJA75o8
— Brooke Pryor (@bepryor) January 19, 2024
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Getting a new contract for Mike Tomlin and getting a plan for the quarterback position are the Steelers top offseason priorities.
With the 2023 season in the rear-view mirror, the Pittsburgh Steelers must now turn their attention to the offseason and get going on their offseason to-do list. Here are the first five things the Steelers need to do in the offseason.
