Steelers Found Their Offensive Coordinator, Now, What is Their Plan?

I could see us spending a late round pick on one

I was getting tired of them contemplating the “release” of Bruce Arians as some offensive genius and Ben as some petulant baby thats going to cry and whine about Haley. As I had written in another discussion Arians wasn’t “bad,” he was average and as for Big Ben, he is a professional football player and a leader on the team, he is going to embrace this change like a trooper and make it work. I have no doubts. Sometimes I think 93.7 feels as though they need to drum up this highly hypothetical situation and then pound it until it almost seems true (ex. Pirate talk) when all they have to do is conversate evenly about the situation.

What has Ben done these past two seasons that would give you any indication that he was going to be unprofessional? Sure he was none to happy about losing a friend (I certainly wouldn’t be), but in the end, he is an employee and I believe he understands that. His comment about going and talking to the Rooneys was so overblown it was pathetic, it is common for a valued employee to seek direction and guidance from his employer especially when the employer changes things so drastically as to removing the OC.

Just another quick note, to the comment by Arians about having “63000 Ofensive Coordinators in the stands,” dude man up. The amount of money it takes to go to a Steeler game (or the amount it costs me for Sunday Ticket because I live in Balt) I reserve the freakin right as a fan to question everything. Thats the beauty of being a “FAN.”

A speedy 3rd down back will be signed or drafted and he’ll likely look at veteran experience up front on the line; he had major success with Jamaal Charles and utilized Dexter McCluster in a lot of ways after missing out on Darren Sproles in free agency. He loves the Sprint Draw and backs who can catch the ball out of the backfield and get to the outside. He knows it starts up front though, and I’m sure that’s a conversation he had before taking the job: the offensive line needs rebuilt.

It’s going to be a lot of fun watching him bring his type of players into the system. I’m excited.

I don’t think it’ll be problem, because he’ll have a QB who can execute, which he didn’t have in Matt Cassel. He’ll also bring a mental toughness and confidence to this offense that Arians didn’t. Gonna be fun to watch.

Is the running game more of the same or will we have a power FB who can also make an occasional catch out of the back field?

I don’t know that Haley would have been my first choice. Then again, I have never worked in the front office of an NFL franchise.

Regardless, I’m glad they went outside the organization to find someone to lead the offense. The coaching staff on offense had become complacent, content to rely on Roethlisberger’s improvisation and the speed of our wideouts. For as good a friend as Arians claimed to be to Roethlisberger, he sure didn’t seem to care how many hits his quarterback took in a game or season. And that’s certainly no way to endear yourselves to ownership, putting their 100 million dollar QB on the injury list week in and week out.

If all Haley does is get the line to protect the QB better, and departs from the bubble-and-chuck offense, then we come out ahead in this deal.

First of all Ben is not a true professional yet. The stench of the bathroom incident is still in the air and he just finished telling the world how he was going to discuss getting the offensive issues corrected w Mr. Rooney.

Ben doesn’t seem to realize that he doesn’t go over the head of the coach to talk about getting the offensive scheme worked out to the owners preference. That’s the coaches job. That’s major arrogance by Ben to even suggest it and It’s way out of line.

Secondly there will be no 60-40 negotiating crap behind closed doors w Haley, that’s not his style at all.. Haley is the OC and while he will listen to Ben’s input he will do it his way. If anything Haley will be tougher on Ben in front of the young players.

I suspect Ben’s arrogance is a bit out of hand and that’s one of the reasons they brought Haley in. Your assessment in the first paragraph after the jump is totally off base.

Chiefs completed 85 passes to running backs last year.
We completed a little over 30. Clear weakness in my eyes all year.
hopefully haley puts that back into the playbook.

I have no idea why people are getting so down on our RB’s and TE’s.

RB- Mendy is a top talent and ACL tears are not as bad as they used to be. Redman is a horse. Dwyer and Batch have great potential. Even Clay seems capable of pounding it.

TE- Miller is one of the best in the game. Saunders has talent to become a great receiving TE.

Just want to clarify that these two positions are solid and nowhere near a need for this team.

I was afraid after all the dumb media speculation about Haley having conflicts with players that there’d be a dumber current worming into the conversation.

The thing that killed me with all that talk is if you have a rough season like KC had last season, you’re a screamer. But, if you win, you’re called fiery.

He was a part of it so he has incite to their philosophies and methods.

What do you mean? He was never involved in anything NE did. (although he saw them twice a year as a Jets asstn

Strangely, at one point, I too was convinced he worked for NE at some point. I think association had me think “Pioli-Haley….must have NE ties”

To me that is what the plan is. Here are my benchmarks for what ever plan is made for the next five years.

5 Straight Winning Seasons.
Minimum of 3 Division Titles
Minimum 2 SB Appearances
Minimum 1 SB Win

I think this is a fair ask. These are the only numbers I am looking at to look at this move as a success or failure.

One of the local papers posted his resume on their website. It looks his average time with an organization is 2-3 years. Could there be a line of thinking that he will come here to shake things up. And if he is successful, great, if not then just see if Kirby or Fitch is ready? Just wondering because normally the Rooney’s look for long term solutions,but could they (Art II) be trying something new?

Getting tired of hearing this. Ben did exactly what any good professional employee in a leadership position should do when they don’t know what their boss is expecting of them. They ASK.

Haley is a freaking awesome hire, assuming he doesn’t try to rewrite the entire offense’s playbook from a terminology standpoint.

I’m totally stoked for next season.

I hope the plan is to stay aggressive…bring more tempo and urgency to the offense. I would, like othere suggested, see us run more out of passing sets…and for Gods sake, throw more to the RB’s, more dump offs.

Also…how about better clock management inside two minutes? Spiking the ball in the right situation and calling a timeout in right situations. How about being less predictable?

I was not a BA hater and more often than not, defended him. But, since Haley is here I’m actually excited about it. Hopefully he makes the offense a little sharper, more crisp…I do like his aggressive nature and would hope that attitude rubs off on the offense.

Based upon what I have read here the attitude starts with the FO then through Tomlin and so on. BA didn’t fit that mold. I’m not sure any other QB that wasn’t an elite QB could of survived BA Scheme. The bottom line is with regards to certain position players is a wait and see situation. It starts with the OL ( passing and running). Until they have an attitude that we don’t care you know what we are going to do you still have to stop us from doing what we will do nothing will matter. Outside 2 maybe 3 players on the OL that attitude is MIA and has been since Arian’s scheme was fully implemented. Ben doesnt need to throw 40+ times a game to have a stellar season… He need to have time to connect on 30 passes a game being more accurate and efficient.. but to do that he needs a vastly improved line with a nasty attitude from the starters through the backups… Same goes for any RB we have (all capable of reaching 1000 yrds in a season). In some ways I suspect this team to resemble the Cardinals (SB yr) in terms of the offense but even THEY had a much better line than we did at any point the past two seasons. We won because or D and Ben willed it – PERIOD. Not because Arians scheme. Once Ben scrambles – its back yard football not a schemed play.

Ben and BA got to be to good of friends and the Steelers seen this and it was slowing down the offense and BA was not going to improve Ben’s QB play and there is always room for improvement and Ben could use some, So Haley will push Ben to be a great QB and make better decisions on his reads. We have 4 good WR that can be the best WR corp in the league and 1 and possibly 2 (Saunders) TE’s so there has to be someone open at all times they cannot double everyone and use the running game when not so predictable when to run and what happened to the screen play with the RB we have and no more 10 bubble screens a game. We need to be great not good.

I like the hiring of haley and hope that he is mean. Mean coaches make you work harder. Ben should understand that all of your team mates should get some shine. I do not see him lighting up the score board passing. The run game needs to be geared up. That being said the Steelers should primarily draft 1. Guard 2. Cornerback (Minnifield @ Virginia) 3. Tackle 4. Running Back that hits the hole and has speed 5. Line backer 6. Nose Tackle. If the Steelers do no get a corner in the draft they will not win the Super Bowl. Notice I said they will not win it.