Steelers 2024-25 Season Thread

[DigitalGypsy66]

It sounds like Art II has his annual media availability today. I wonder how he'll spin the season collapse this time around?

[MrKennethTKangaroo]

His idiot brother’s excuse of “well we perform better than the average team” was quite the take

[Dickie Dunn]

The remnants of the family since Dan died don't seem like the sharpest knives in the drawer.

[Troy Loney]

I hear that Art's son Dan is going to be taking the lead role pretty soon. And that Dan is having his first son, who will be named Arthur.

[mac5155]

AWFUR! SHALOM!

[meow]

Russell Wilson. 2025 Pro Bowl selection

[Rylan]

lol

[nocera]

"You knew exactly what they were doing," Edelman said when speaking about the Steelers defense. "And they still do what they did. They still do the same God d*** s*** [as] when I was playing [Mike] Tomlin's defense. I'm like, 'We still have linebackers covering the three slot?’ Every time we play Steelers, I have at least nine catches. You would think that they would change it but no, they do what they do."

https://www.steelernation.com/2025/01/2 ... mlin-never

[LITT]

THE STEELER WAY

[DigitalGypsy66]

The Standard is the Standard

[DigitalGypsy66]

It's Senior and Shrine Bowl time and Tomlin and Austin are at the Senior Bowl. Generally, you can tell where the Steelers are looking to draft from where the coaches spend time during practices. All week Tomlin has been hanging out with D linemen. So expect one to get picked early. For what that's worth.

[MrKennethTKangaroo]

Patrick Peterson once said that his favorite Tomlin-ism was “for the man to live the boy must die”

Another empty phrase for this organization to live by

[dodint]

Patrick Peterson once said that his favorite Tomlin-ism was “for the man to live the boy must die”

Another empty phrase for this organization to live by

Maybe he's a big Dark Tower/Gunslinger fan.

[tifosi77]

I was thinking more like Kylo Ren

[shafnutz05]

Patrick Peterson once said that his favorite Tomlin-ism was “for the man to live the boy must die”

Another empty phrase for this organization to live by

Maybe he's a big Dark Tower/Gunslinger fan.

That brought back some rough memories

[Trip McNeely]

It's Senior and Shrine Bowl time and Tomlin and Austin are at the Senior Bowl. Generally, you can tell where the Steelers are looking to draft from where the coaches spend time during practices. All week Tomlin has been hanging out with D linemen. So expect one to get picked early. For what that's worth.

They are gonna cut Ogunjobi so I’m totally fine with this. They honestly need to take two d-lineman in the draft. CB can be done if free agency. I’d like him to see D line and Wr in rounds 1-2 and d line and running back in rounds 3-4

[shafnutz05]

https://steelersdepot.com/2025/01/mike- ... qus_thread

National media turning on Tomlin. I have very little interest in following this team until the current regime is gone. Including Art.

[Troy Loney]

Kind of feels exhausting. Maybe they do need to light a little fire under tomlin, but these exposes are kind of ridiculous considering how they are coming off back to back 10-win seasons.

Not that it’s completely comparable, but the eagles’ 2023 collapse was as bad as the Steelers. The end stretch was brutal and Russell played terribly to close out the season. Fin.

Also, roethlisberger can eat a dick (quoted in the article) Played 1-2 years too long and was active in preventing the team from developing his heir apparent.

Tomlin bears responsibility for weaknesses in the roster. Drafting has also been 1000x better in the two years since Colbert left. If they retool the defensive line this offseason, all the pieces should be in place for a qb to step in and be successful. I expect 2025 to be a similar story with fields as the starter, but I think we’ll see improvements on offense.

[Rylan]

Its also Brooke Pryor who has had a very public adversarial relationship with Tomlin.

[Trip McNeely]

It’s not talked about enough how horrific Colbert was in his final years as GM. The 2021 draft is going to have a total of 1 player on the roster beginning next year (Muth). The 2022 draft has one player that does anything (Pickens) plus Austin who looks to be a decent complementary piece. Leal is a complete bust

[tifosi77]

That stat re the 2021 draft doesn't strike me as super unusual. League-wide I think only around 1/5 of first round picks re-sign with their draft team after their rookie deal is up; 2024 would've been the end of those rookie deals. It wouldn't surprise me if that percentage is even lower the deeper down the draft you go. An average NFL career doesn't even see out a full rookie contract.

[Kaiser]

Who could have seen this coming?


https://dkpittsburghsports.com/team/ste ... urn-nfl-dk

Exclusive: Russ isn’t wanted back, and here are the reasons why
I'll keep this short and very much to the point: Russell Wilson's not wanted by the Steelers.

Like, at all.

I had multiple conversations Thursday with people inside the team, all on my long drive up here to Manhattan to cover hockey, and the universal sentiment among them regarding the player who quarterbacked the offense to a five-loss collapse to close the season was this: Don't try here what you tried in Denver upon that ugly exit from the Broncos after a public spat with Sean Payton, which was to blame others for your shortcomings.

Also this: There's the door.

I'm not at liberty to engage in a lot of details here, and I'd apologize for that except that this is how conversations like these can take place. But I'm here to state as firmly as I possibly can that this nonsense that was echoed by a local newspaper earlier this week about how Wilson was suddenly handcuffed by Arthur Smith after a strong showing in Cincinnati ... was exactly that. Meaning nonsense. Absolutely nothing had changed about Smith's approach in the options he offers to quarterbacks, whether Wilson or Justin Fields, and nothing sure was about to change after Wilson ran up 44 points against the Bengals. But I'm told that Wilson's agents, part of his voluminous entourage, put forth that narrative, and they did so in an apparent attempt to either preserve his status in Pittsburgh or enhance the chance that another team might want him as a starter.

Enunciating every syllable: It won't be here.

No chance.

None.

What actually occurred with Wilson, according to those same people inside the team, is that, as all of our naked eyes could plainly tell us, he wasn't following the play calls, he was holding the ball way too long and, within the latter, he no longer could escape defenders in the backfield. I also heard internal concerns expressed -- for the first time, I might add -- about his arm strength. He just wasn't good, aside from the odd prayer ball he'd heave up for George Pickens.

So, why wouldn't Mike Tomlin have made a change back to Justin Fields as the season was sliding away?

I don't have that answer. Maybe it was that he wouldn't have felt right thrusting Fields back out there for a playoff after two months of rust, but again, I don't know.

Going back further, why would the Steelers have ever signed Wilson if they had worries -- which they did -- about his conduct with the coaches in Denver?

I do have that answer. He was available on a one-year, $1.2 million term and was deemed worth the gamble, given all the problems at the position since Ben Roethlisberger's retirement.

But that's it. That's over.

Happy to answer any questions on this from our subscribers in comments, as always, though I'll remind that I'm here for hockey today with a ton to do on that front, so it might take a while.

[Troy Loney]

I think we can fix him.

[dodint]

"exclusive"

[MrKennethTKangaroo]

Why didn’t they move on to fields? Easy question: fields stinks.