Steelers/NFL
TIOPS INSIDE BUZZ
Will Ben Roethlisberger really retire this off-season where he would have to pay the Steelers $18 million of his signing bonus back?
Financial reasons alone say probably not.
However, here are some whispers on where some inside the organization believe Ben’s frustration/retirement talk is coming from:
1. Ben can’t stand ‘today’s player’ as one source close to the situation put it. He loves his offensive line and the long-time veterans in that room, but Steelers officials sense it’s becoming a lot easier for Roethlisberger to potentially walk away 2-3 years earlier than anyone imagined when he feels more of his teammates are about themselves/brand than playing for the logo. He has expressed these concerns to Mike Tomlin all season.
To go with that, health didn’t just drive Heath Miller away. Miller a close friend of Roethlisberger, no longer believed the Steelers had a group that was playing for the right things and that factor also made it easier for him to walk away when he still had a couple more seasons left in him.
When Roethlisberger came into the league, his first four to five years he was a wild man off the field and that persona of him rubbed a lot of players the wrong way and he didn’t have many friends. But, inside the building things were different. The majority were after the same thing.
Roethlisberger was brought up with a veteran group that was driven to win for the logo and Roethlisberger as a young player also adopted that philosophy from the start. That was a big part of the Steelers building something from 04-11 as other young players would follow.
There was an identity inside the building that is now absent.
Back then, players who didn’t fit the mold, the Steelers would get their use out of them and then ship them out like Santonio Holmes.
The last 2-3 years it just no longer exists in the organization. So much is now about ‘me’ first and ‘my’ brand, with the logo second. —
Do the Steelers have much fear Roethlisberger will retire this off-season?
No they don’t, but the Steelers brass believes at his age the time could be sooner than expected and this is at the forefront of Roethlisberger’s frustrations right now.
Roethlisberger/Haley Dynamic
2. Steelers officials also believe Ben is sending a message in that he wouldn’t mind an offensive coordinator change. What he’s doing is not demanding a change but this is classic Ben in getting in Mike Tomlin’s ear to make him think about a change as talk inside Steelers circles is the Roethlisberger – Haley relationship has run its course.
Despite a nine game winning streak into the AFC title game, the two clashed for much of this season behind the scenes and things took a turn for the worst during the Baltimore game on Christmas Day when Roethlisberger and Haley didn’t see eye-to-eye on the game plan.
Plain and simple, the talk around the Steelers right now is Ben believes the offense has been stagnant under Haley and hasn’t taken that critical next step to being elite in four years under Haley’s direction. Roethlisberger finished the season with 7 touchdowns and 9 interceptions over his final six games.
Roethlisberger this week called the Steelers “unprepared and out-coached” multiple times. Those close to the situation believe those were direct shots at Haley, who has a reputation among players of not going the extra mile in preparing for opponents and is notoriously late for offensive [hide] meetings that has rubbed Roethlisberger the wrong way for years, a source says.
Haley has one year left on his contract and what he has going for him is the Rooney’s adore him. Art Rooney II pushed Haley on Tomlin in 2012 when Tomlin wanted to hire Hue Jackson. Even if Tomlin starts thinking about a change, he’d likely have to sell ownership on it that makes a possible change unlikely.
Stallings has uphill battle at Pitt
Pitt’s embarrassing 106-51 loss to Louisville saw the program just collapse in what’s been a buildup in recent weeks. The players don’t like the coach and the coach doesn’t like the players he inherited. They’ve suffered back-to-back home losses by a combined 81 points.
The current group and Stallings is just a terrible marriage.
They’re not playing for him and he thinks most of them are garbage.
His opening statement said it all.
“That’s about as disappointing of a performance that I possibly could imagine,” said Stallings. “A lot of things I could say, that I’d like to say, but that was embarrassing, unacceptable and it’s my responsibility to have them prepared to play better, harder, and smarter. Ultimately, at the end of the day, it’s my responsibility. I don’t know what short-term options I have available, it doesn’t seem like many honestly, but from a long-term standpoint there will be some options and there will be some things rectified. I think one thing that this team has consistently shown is the inability to deal with adversity and since Ryan [Luther] went down with the injury and since Mike [Young] has been less than what he was earlier in the season, there almost seems to be a feeling of – I don’t know what adjective I want to use to describe it – amongst the players and I quite frankly don’t understand that. I don’t understand how you don’t dig in and compete harder. We will keep trying to find answers, but not having Ryan Luther shouldn’t cause this much of a drop off. He is an important player for us, for sure, but I feel like there some fragmentation in the locker room, unfortunately. I don’t feel any of it towards the coaching staff honestly, but you get taught tough lessons if you’re not prepared to do your best every time you take on a challenge. We will keep working to find answers and play better than we played tonight.”
Stallings wasn’t shy about admitting there’s even fragmentation among the players.
“I am not going to sit here and air what I observe and what I see, but it’s not the way it should be. It’s not being taken in a good direction,” said Stallings. Again, I am limited in options, when I turn around and there is someone that is not playing hard enough defensively, which was pervasive the entire evening, you put someone else in, but I pretty much have my five best defenders starting the game, so that’s a bad sign when the other team shoots 71 percent against you in the first half. It’s a bad sign that when you go to the bench you get worse defensively. We have to keep coaching them and trying to get into the players a little bit better.”
Jamie Dixon and Pitt officials last spring both knew it was time to move on. Even with Dixon thriving earlier than expected at TCU and Stallings off to a terrible start with little help on the horizon, there’s not a lot of second guessing from Pitt officials in not trying to get Dixon to stick around.
Kevin Stallings can coach. What remains to be seen is whether he’s the right guy for what’s going to be a rebuild for the program. Things are bad now and there’s not much coming in.
It’s going to be a rough couple years before a turnaround is possible and the lack of enthusiasm around the program will become worrisome fast from boosters. Where the second guessing will be is whether the best route was to go with a young up and coming coach who would embrace a 3-to-4 year turnaround. Stallings won’t. He was brought in as a guy Pitt thought could elevate them with a more offensive brand.
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Get rid of them all and bring in Kyle Shanahan! Tomlin is part of the problem with the me attitude that some of these players have.
Bye-bye Butler and Haley, get some fresh thinking in the coaching room.
Take Lake and J Peezy with them.
They’d all go or be asked to leave if MT was canned, but that isn’t happening.