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On Paper: Did the Steelers win the offseason

After just falling short of that 7th ring for several years in a row, the 2018-19 Pittsburgh Steelers failed to even make the postseason in an emotional roller coaster of a season. Small mistakes, poor decisions, and lots of drama can all be factored in to the reason of why we missed the playoffs by half of a game to the Baltimore Ravens. So really, had any of the losses or the tie week one been wins, we would have been locked in for another run. So what did the Steelers organization do to help overcome such a devastating season?

-Tyson Alualu-

The first of the Steelers larger moves was addressing depth up front. The team brought back Alualu through the 2020 season on a $5,750,000 contract. This move helps keep the defensive front a bit more stout with a solid veteran presence in a rotation of younger players like Buggs and an unproven Dan McCullers.

-Antonio Brown-

This may cause some debate, but I think the team ultimately improved with this trade both long term and short term. The noise reduction is key. As stated above, we missed the postseason by half a game. Could we have potentially won any of our non-wins in 2018 had it not been for the drama in the building? Did Brown contribute more than he brought the team down? There’s no way to actually prove any of this, but the thought may raise some eyebrows and questions. And with him gone, the inside noise will definitely be limited this season as the current members of the Steelers seem to have all kept the talking to a minimum already, despite everything being thrown at the organization this offseason. Long term however, we managed to get something out of him as he started the downward spiral in his career due to father time, something all great players must face. We all saw him lose a step this last season, so I’d hate to see what he’d look like in 2019 being even slower and still just as demanding for the ball.

- Bringing back Jordan Berry, Eli Rogers, Dan McCullers, and Anothony Chickillo-

All of these players were brought back on 2 year deals through the 2020 season. What I find very interesting is that even though each of these four are reviving a pretty hefty pay check, a majority of it is not guaranteed for them. This is very smart imo. If they can make plays when their names are called and be consistent, then they continue to earn that salary throughout 2020. If not however, the FO loses out on very little in cap penalties.

-Outside FA’s-

-The Nelson signing wasn’t to appealing to me at first but it’s beginning to grow on me. With Hadden getting older, Hilton showing some inconsistencies last year in the slot, and not seeing a snap of Layne yet, this is very good insurance at the position.

-If any of you can recall, Donte Moncrief was very popular here when he was going through the pre-draft process. He was a very successful player in college but didn’t quiet live up to the hype in the pros. That doesn’t mean he’s a bad player by any means though, as he hasn’t been blessed with the best of offenses throughout his career, yet he was still a solid offensive piece. He’s also a taller receiver (6’2) which I’m sure made Ben very happy. And it appears that so far the two have been clicking throughout the offseason which makes this a major win.

-Mark Barron is hands down my favorite outside FA we’ve added in a while. What he brings to the middle of the field is more than an improvement over Fort. Doing this gave us an extremely versatile LB unit and he will be a great addition to the defense in the passing game, something we’ve needed since we lost Shazier.

-Released-

-Morgan Burnett was very much a disappointment in 2018 for the Steelers, as he struggled to stay on the field and to make plays when he was there. It was obvious he wasn’t happy with the situation and has moved on to Cleveland. I’m glad we let him go, it just stinks to see a pointless cap hit from the signing of an injury prone veteran player. I truly wonder if he’d mentioned to the FO before signing that he didn’t want to play in the box.

-I’m not typically the type of person who pretends to know more than the front office, but releasing Jon Bostic just didn’t make sense to me. In fairness, he was a player I’ve always been very high on. In fact, one of my bold predictions last offseason was that he would have a career year in 2018. He did in fact play a different type of football than he ever did in Indianapolis or Chicago, but it apparently wasn’t enough after the team made plans on Bush and Barron. IMO if Bostic were to be the 4th LB on the roster, we would’ve by far had the most solid LB unit in the league. He wasn’t great but he was proficient and did what he was asked to do and didn’t seem to be a liability out there. His ability on the field more than trumps Matakavich’s ST’s ability.

-Trading Gilbert may come back to bite us. Although the cap savings are nice for a player who seemed to never be on the field last year, he brought a lot to this offense throughout his career. And with Munchak gone and not working his magic here in Pittsburgh, we’re not sure how well guys like Feiler and Chucks will be on the field.

-Ben’s Extension-

-Extending Ben an extra 3 years says a lot to me as a fan after his retirement talk a few years ago. It tells me that he still sees the team heading in a positive direction. It is obvious that Ben is very hungry for another SB ring, which makes me very excited. If Ben can at least play through this contract before departing for retirement, it gives the team some more time to try and find the heir to our HOF QB, so we aren’t stuck wasting part of the careers of our younger players while we are in search of one.

-Draft-

Personally I though we nailed it in the draft. The FO gave the fans what they wanted with Bush and got an incredible defensive talent out of it too. They addressed many positions of need in the draft including a hopeful replacement for AB, a TE to learn and grow behind McDonald, and they have the chance to finally draft a solid CB in the Tomlin era. They also went out and found two guys with loads of potential who slipped through the cracks in Benny Snell and Sutton Smith.

Overall I think the organization did a great job rebounding from a rough season. This team has loads of potential and no excuses left. Seats are warming up and the game is on. I believe this team is finally ready to get back in the race for another SB trophy.

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.