FanPost

Whats next for STEELERS D? History on STEELERS side!

Im a life long STEELERS fan and I think that lime many others on this site have been through the best and the worse. Now that we all know that Coach LeBeau is gone and will certainly land in TEN or ARI to hook up with once future colleagues Wisenhunt or Arians. Many fellow STEELER fans ask me, Whats next? Who is the replacement? Will he change our system? Will that person just clean out all of the aging parts? Or my personal favorite as of right now is will the STEELERS change from a 3-4 defense to something else?

First off, Im going to just say "THANK YOU COACH LeBEAU for a great run here in the BURGH! Steeler fans all over the world will always recognize you as the architect of the 3-4 defnse, the man who helped bring the Steelers back to prominence and of course brought two more Lombardi trophies to Pittsburgh! For me, Steelers DEFENSE was Dick LeBeau and you will always be synonymous with DEFENSE and STEELERS football!

Now, STEELER fans...No need to worrie! I have been down this road a few times...Lets take a stroll down STEELER MEMORY lane...

Not to long ago when I was a lad (lol) during the Chuck Knoll era, the Steelers D coordinator was legendary Bud Carson who was there from 73-77 and was the mastermind behind the STEEL CURTAIN! After the 77 season Bud left to LA who was instrumental in getting them into a SB against of course our STEELERS. The point was after him I felt as if we would not rebound! Guys like George Perles (78), Woody Widenhoff (79-83) would take over but never achieve or rise to prominence as Bud Carson. The Steelers were competitive but never a threat in those years!

In 84-88, Tony Dungy would be hired by Chuck Knoll and would fill in admirably although be it was hand cuffed by poor drafts in those years and would also not be able to lift the STEELERS from what I refer to as the dark years.

Rod Rust was a fill in for the 89 season as was Dave Brazil who would be Chuck Knolls last hire at D Coordinator.

ENTER THE COWHER ERA!

Bill would oust the majority of the staff and one of his first hires would be Dom Caper! Yes! Dom was very instrumental in bring the STEELERS back from the ashes! His attack style old school mentality was just what the STEELERS needed. Dom was the man who re-energized the STEELERS D and brought for the name "BLITZBURGH" behind the likes of Greg Lloyd, Kevin Greene, Chad Brown, Levon Kirkland, Carnell Lake and Rod Woodson to name a few! His defense although never having won a Super Bowl was epic! After his departure to Carolina hurt! I was one to say "Now what are we going to do?" I did not think they could fill his shoes!

I was wrong!

Dick LeBeau who was on staff would be promoted by Bill Cowher! Bill knew exactly what he had with LeBeau and for 2 more years the STEELERS would be great! Eventually LeBeau would leave back to CINCY where he was key in building and guiding the Bengals to their best years in the late 80s. After his departure, I was once again asking myself the very same question... "Who will be the next coordinator?? I was not feeling good about this loss!

Jim Haslett would fill in admirably from 97-99 but would eventually be another loss due to his success and would take a HC job in New Orleans as the 3rd Cowher disciple to leave the BURGH!

After his loss the STEELERS would fall into another tail spin as D COORDINATOR Tim Lewis (200-2003) would ride an emotional roller coaster of ups and downs. The Steelers would go 9-7 in 00, 13-3 in 01 and would suffer one of the worse losses in a championship game to the PATS 24-17. In 02 the Steelers would finish 10-5-1 and would watch their season unravel in TEN in a divisional round game. The 03 season would be Lewis' last after a dismal 6-10 finish.

Bill Cowher would then circle back and bring back Dick LeBeau. Coach LeBeau would re-invent the Steelers D via the FIRE ZONE BLITZ and 3-4 BLITZBURGH defense was once again the most feared in the league. Under his guidance, the Steelers would win two more super Bowl titles and (1 with Cowher and 1 with current HC Tomlin).

Enter the present...After Bill Cowher would ride off into the sunset a lot of question marks! Enter the TOMLIN ERA!

Coach Tomlin would retain the services of Coach LeBeau in favor of a complete overhaul and end the concerns of ging to a Tampa 2 Stule D. This would prove to be the first and most important decision that Tomline would make! LeBaue would help build another championship caliber team and win another Lombardi and appear in another super Bowl game! Now the time has come and the mastermind of the 3-4 defense Coach LeBeau is is now leaving and we are left with all of the same questions as in the past. I will put this in perspective like this. The Steelers have always done will in developing their own talent and thus the reluctance to dabble a lot in free agency. The Steelers have had a succession plan for LeBeau for quite some time with Coach Butler. I am a firm believer that Coach Butler will be the next D Coordinator in Pittsburgh this coming season. He has had the luxury of working with the likes of Butch Davis, Tim Lewis and the man himself Dick LeBeau. There is no reason to worry because as you can see, the successor has always been there!

Steeler fans, get ready for the next chapter of what we refer to as BLITZBURGH. I don't anticipate a ton of change with the staff but don't be shocked if it does happen. I think that players will be heavily re-evaluated and some tweaking will take place until the right pieces are in place for both Tomlin and Butler. This is a key indicator that we may be a bigger play in free agency this coming season. Once this happens, it might take a season or two to get it all under wraps but I will be willing to bet that the STEELERS will once again rise to prominence under coach Butler and what you will see will be a much more re-energized, aggressive and dominant defense!

Lets hear it from you. What do you think will happen next?

The opinions shared here are not those of the editorial staff of Behind the Steel Curtain or SB Nation. These posts are not approved in any way by the editorial staff of this web site.