At the end of the day it may be just hooey, because we just do not know. If people are honest, they will admit that we may not know this whole season if the offense is better, worse or the same. At this point I am not sure how to evaluate the offense. My own personal standard is that the Steelers develop and improve offensive talent, get some playing at a pro bowl level, winning seasons, playoff appearances, playoff wins and of course rings. I honestly feel that the Steelers could win the SB this year and next, but if the offensive is ranked behind the Colts, there will be people calling for Haley’s head. A 15th – 20th rank offence could get to the SB’s, put together game winning drives in both of the SB’s, have a offensive player be the MVP in both SB’s and Haley could still be out of a job. It is a time of great change on the offense side of the ball. Some of the expectations of Haley make things look silly at times.

The way some analyst have talked about Roethlisberger, you would think that he is a QB that never really accomplished anything and Haley was going to get him over the hump. This is not fair to either man. High scoring offenses have not a priority for the Steelers. Since 1933, the Steelers have only been in the top 20% in scoring 7 times (‘72, ‘73, ‘75, ‘76, ‘78, ‘79 and ‘95) Please remember 6 of those 7 years the Steelers had 5 HOF players on offense. The Steelers have been a to 20% least points allowed 22 times since 1933 (’46, ’49, ’57, ’72, ’74 - ’76, ’78, ’79, ’82, ’92, ’94, ’96, ’00, ’01, ’04, ’05, ’07, ’08, ’10, and ’11). The goal seems to be to get to 24 pts 25 pts per game. That would be legendary for a Steelers offense but good to nice in today’s NFL. The team seems to be making adjustment to reach these numbers.

To my recollection, it has been a while since the Steelers have been committed (or soon to commit like Pouncey) long term to so many of their offensive players. The trick will be to balance this with how they keep and develop their defensive talent. We will see how this plays out and that is all we can do at this point. With the 1st pre-season game coming up we can put away the hype, hysteria and hooey and see how this thing works out. The Steelers are about the long term so glady waint to see how this plays out.