U mad, bro? Readers seething over Steelers’ elimination, Mike Tomlin, ‘Hard Knocks’ prospect
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Whenever the Steelers get knocked out of the playoff race, you know things are going to get spicy.
This week’s “U mad, bro?” lives up (or is it down?) to expectations with heat coming from all directions.
No one is safe. Not Mike Tomlin. Not the organization. Not HBO. Not me. Not even Post Malone!
Wait. What?
Eh, read ahead. You’ll figure it ‘aht.
Theodore sent me an email about the Steelers potentially being on HBO’s “Hard Knocks” training camp show next year.
“Who cares if Steelers go on Hard Knocks?”
Hmm. Probably the same people who send me emails asking, “Who cares about Le’Veon Bell and Antonio Brown anymore?”
Usually after they’ve read every word of every post about both of them all season long.
Let’s avoid starting the “who cares” game on this one, OK? You’ll care. I’ll care. Everyone will care. And we will watch, so long as the Steelers are the chosen team.
We won’t be proud of it. And every week we may walk away saying, “What was the point of watching that?”
But we’ll watch.
After the Steelers were eliminated from playoff contention in Baltimore Sunday, I sent out this tweet.
Who do u think the Steelers will take in the first round of the dr…..crap
— Tim Benz (@TimBenzPGH) December 30, 2019
BP replied.
22 year all pro safety. Minkah Fitzpatrick..
— BP (@BphillipsUK) December 30, 2019
OK, BP, you answered my snark with a little snark of your own. That’s fair. You and about 100 other people who sent me the exact same tweet.
Yes. The Steelers traded their first-round pick in 2020 to Miami for Minkah Fitzpatrick during Week 3 of this year. Trust me, I remember. I watched the games. He was really good.
I get it.
However, here’s what you and all the others who sent me that same tweet don’t seem to get: Fitzpatrick is already on the team.
You don’t get to draft him again in April. Do you understand that?
Fitzpatrick fixed a lot of problems, and he made a lot of plays that helped what could have been a 5-11 team get to 8-8. He’ll help again next year.
But he was still a part of a team that went 8-8. First-round picks are supposed to help 8-8 teams get to 10-6. And now the Steelers don’t have one.
My tweet wasn’t a second guess of the trade, or a wish that it never should’ve happened. It was an observation that the Steelers don’t have a first-round pick to fill one of their many holes on the roster.
Fitzpatrick is great. But he isn’t Bugs Bunny playing baseball against the “Gas House Gorillas.” He can’t play every position at once.
The justification for acquiring Fitzpatrick in the first place was, “It’s like getting two first-round picks in 2019.”
But Fitzpatrick can’t be a second first-round pick in 2019 and be counted as the first-round pick again in 2020. Sadly, it doesn’t work that way.
If it did, that’d be great! Want me to check with Roger Goodell to see if the Steelers are owed a second Fitzpatrick in April?
OK. I’ll get back to you.
Frankee seems to think my recent column about things that Ben Roethlisberger won’t be able to fix was a little too alarmist.
LoL. Calm down. Ben and Nix back with this Defense puts them in the SB.
— Frankee Ballz (@FrankeeBallz) January 1, 2020
Oooooooh, I forgot about Roosevelt Nix.
Obviously, the fullback who is often hurt and rarely gets to play on offense will be a complete difference maker.
Yup. I take it all back. See you in Tampa in February 2021.
On Tuesday, I posted a column saying that Steelers fans should appreciate the efforts of the players to keep the 2019 season interesting despite the many challenges they faced because of injuries.
But I added that their failure to make the playoffs because of losing the last three games means that the season should be looked upon as nothing but mediocre in the end.
Jim disagreed.
They don’t need to win 3 more games. They squeezed all the wins they were going to out of Duck. Sometime the talent just isn’t there. Connor started and finished how many of the last 3?
— Jim_Gardner (@JimGardner24) December 31, 2019
You’re right, Jim. They only needed to win two more.
Look, massage it all you want. The bottom line is that in eight out of 11 weeks WITHOUT Roethlisberger, they were the better NFL team than their opponent.
Then in the last three weeks, suddenly they weren’t. And two of those opponents were a sub-.500 Jets team and a Ravens squad resting its starters.
And that’s okay for you, I guess?
I wonder how the conversation would have gone after the Steelers won in Arizona to improve to 8-5 if I had said, “Eh, what’s the point? They aren’t good enough. Sure, 8-5 is a nice start through 13 games. But the Steelers actually stink. They’ll just lose their last three and go home. No big deal if they miss the playoffs.”
I wonder if Jim would’ve endorsed that prediction heading into the Buffalo game at Heinz Field.
Nah. I don’t think he would’ve either.
A different guy named Jim sent me an email. His New Year’s resolution was obviously to just give up all hope.
“Fortunately the season is over. The Steelers are getting to be an embarrassment and Mike Tomlin doesn’t know how to win. He is a smooth talker but not a winner. The Steelers have probably settled at a level in the NFL that they can handle, near the bottom. For improvement, there has to be change.”
Different Jim sounds like a guy who was lots of fun around the eggnog bowl this holiday season.
Not that I disagree with Jim’s disappointment on how the 2019 season concluded, mind you. I’m with him there.
But let’s not overdramatize. The Steelers didn’t settle near the bottom of the league. They settled smack-dab in the middle of the league at 8-8.
And this isn’t a season that I’d pin on Tomlin for its failures, seeing as how he had an offense that was at the bottom of the league, largely due to injury.
If people want to argue that the Steelers would have underachieved under Tomlin even if everyone was healthy, that’s a different discussion. There’s lots of evidence to support that.
When Jim writes, “For improvement there has to be change,” I agree.
But, in this offseason, that change needs to occur at the quarterback position, not with the head coach.
Hopefully that change comes in the form of a healthy Roethlisberger.
Apparently, our Steelers beat writer, Joe Rutter, wasn’t pleased with one of the musical acts during the New Year’s Eve broadcast — Post Malone.
If this guy on my TV is Post Malone, whatever happened to Pre Malone?
— Joe Rutter (@tribjoerutter) January 1, 2020
That’s easy. “Pre Malone” was Cliff Stoudt.