Pittsburgh Steelers
Head Coach: Mike Tomlin (71-41 all-time in Pittsburgh)
Last Year's Results: 8-8, no playoffs
Projected Starters:
(My Player Rankings Guide:
E - Elite Starter: Franchise changing player at his position
HQ - High Quality Starter: One of the best in the game at his position
GS - Good Starter: If this guy's on your team, he's likely starting and you should be perfectly fine with it
AS - Average Starter: This guy is OK, but if possible, I'd be looking for an upgrade
BAS - Below Average Starer: This guy should not be starting, but he will because he's the best option
??? - Not enough information regarding this guy and the jury is still out on him
R - Rookie: Pretty self-explanatory
PS - Poor Starter: This guy shouldn't be starting for your football team. NO EXCUSES!)
OFFENSE:
QB: Ben Roethlisberger (HQ)
RB: Le'Veon Bell (AS)
FB: Will Johnson (PS)
WR: Antonio Brown (HQ)
WR: Markus Wheaton (BAS)
TE: Heath Miller (AS)
C: Maurkice Pouncey (GS)
RG: David DeCastro (GS)
LG: Ramon Foster (GS)
RT: Marcus Gilbert (AS)
LT: Kelvin Beachum (AS)
DEFENSE:
DE: Cam Thomas (AS)
DE: Cameron Heyward (GS)
DT: Steve McLendon (AS)
LOLB: Jarvis Jones (BAS)
ROLB: Jason Worilds (GS)
ILB: Ryan Shazier (R)
ILB: Lawrence Timmons (GS)
CB: William Gay (AS)
CB: Ike Taylor (BAS)
SS: Troy Polamalu (HQ)
FS: Mike Mitchell (AS)
SPECIAL TEAMS:
K: Shaun Suisham
P: Brad Wing
Schedule:
vs. Cleveland
vs. @ Baltimore
vs. @ Carolina
vs. Tampa Bay
vs. @ Jacksonville
vs. @ Cleveland
vs. Houston
vs. Indianapolis
vs. Baltimore
vs. @ New York Jets
vs. @ Tennessee
BYE WEEK
vs. New Orleans
vs. @ Cincinnati
vs. @ Atlanta
vs. Kansas City
vs. Cincinnati
Predicted Results: 10-6 (3-3 in division)
Team Analysis: Very few things are constant in the NFL. Yes, there will be concussions this year. Yes, there will be torn ACL's this year. And yes, once again the Pittsburgh Steelers should be in the mix of the playoffs. It's been an odd time in Steeler-land lately. Pittsburgh is the pure definition of "consistent" (well as much as a football team can be with injuries and such constantly on the prowl), and after two mediocre seasons though, Steelers fans are clamoring for some change. If there's one thing in the NFL that's worse than going 0-16, it's going 8-8. If you constantly go 8-8, you end up in the middle of the NFL Draft where you will likely not draft a "team changing player" and you will float in mediocrity for years. I've always said that its better to go 2-14 than it is to go 8-8 because than you at least have the opportunity to draft a guy who can come in and make a big difference right away. The Steelers finishing 8-8 constantly will mean that they'll continue to bounce around in NFL purgatory for sometime, but that's not Mike Tomlin's fault. Tomlin is one of the best head coaches in the NFL, it's just not his problem that the Steelers are quickly becoming one of the oldest teams in the league.
On the offensive side of the ball, Pittsburgh is well off. Ben Roethlisberger is going into his 11th season in the NFL and last year was one of his best year's stats-wise. He loses one of his favorite targets (Emmanuel Sanders), but Antonio Brown is still there and Markus Wheaton should find himself in the starting line-up this season, but if not, Lance Moore and Darius Heyward-Bey will be there ready to step in. Pittsburgh will be fun to watch in the running game this year as they added LeGarrette Blount to go along with Le'Veon Bell and also drafted the speedy Dri Archer who will likely be the fastest player on the field whenever he steps in to play. The Steelers are also good on the offensive line. As long as the unit stays healthy, there's no reason Ben Roethlisberger (who seems to finally be getting comfortable in Todd Haley's shitty system) can't go on to have a career year this year. If you are looking for a sleeper NFL QB in fantasy football, "Big Ben" is your man. This team will put up points this season.
Defensively though, the Steelers are like a bad wine. They are aging, but they are not improving. Troy Polamalu used to be one of the best guys to watch tape on. He was so dominant and exciting of a player, that you couldn't take your eyes off him and his long locks whenever he was on the field. Unfortunately for Polamalu fans, while Troy is still a good football player, Father Time has curbed his explosiveness a little and he's only a shell of what he used to be. That wouldn't be too big of a problem if the Steelers had another "elite" or "high quality" starter on this defense, but there's not one to be found anywhere. Pittsburgh needs a lot of help in the secondary and while the linebacker unit should continue to improve this season with the addition of Ryan Shazier, there's still way too much work to be done on defense before we can seriously consider the Steelers a playoff contender again. With "Big Ben" poised to have another great year, it'll be a real shame if the defense is to blame for this team hitting a wall this year. Unfortunately, that's probably what's going to happen.
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