The Pittsburgh Steelers, the most successful team in the Super Bowl era of NFL history had a rare down year last season. For once, they didn’t actually make the playoffs, and drafted in a pretty unfamiliar spot- all the way up at 17. Of course they took a Linebacker, Georgia’s Jarvis Jones, as it seems they draft a LB every year.
It was a necessity; James Harrison has moved on to the Bengals. However, there have been other changes with the Pittsburgh Steelers too. Is it enough to get them back into the postseason? Will this be a return to the Pittsburgh Steelers you know?- the most productive NFL team of the past 50 years. Or is it remaining in mediocrity?
Here’s what some NFL pundits have to say.
NBC SNF’s Cris Collinsworth on the Pittsburgh Steelers:
“Pittsburgh is going to have, you know, Dick Lebeau I think if you took a local high school team out there Dick Lebeau would have them ranked in the top five in defense in the NFL, he’s done that kind of job.
But with the running back situation now and their offensive line trying to bounce back and without Mike Wallace the pressure’s on. And of course Bruce Arians not being there, you know, we’re in year two of that so we still have to sort of pay attention to how all that goes.”
ESPN MNF’s Mike Tirico on the Pittsburgh Steelers
“The Harrison story line will set itself up because of his long history with the Steelers, what happens in game one, how James looks in that game, and more importantly James Harrison has feasted on other quarterbacks for a decade and tried to get the ball back to Ben Roethlisberger. Now if both are healthy, he’ll be trying to get to Ben Roethlisberger and get the ball back to Andy Dalton, so that’ll be interesting bi?play to watch between the two of them as the night goes on.”
Paul M. Banks is the owner of The Sports Bank.net, an affiliate of Fox Sports. An analyst for 95.7 The Fan, he also writes on Chicago sports media for Chicago Now. President Obama follows him on Twitter (@paulmbanks)