Steelers News: Steelers fans shouldn’t expect a flashy free agency period in 2020

The Pittsburgh Steelers 2019 season is officially over. After finishing the year 8-8, the Steelers, and their vast fan base, has another long offseason awaiting them. Just because the games are done doesn’t mean we stop providing you with features, commentary and opinions to tide you over throughout the offseason!

Today in the black-and-gold links article we take a look at how Pittsburgh Steelers fans shouldn’t expect a flashy free agency period in 2020.

Let’s get to the news:

• The Steelers aren’t usually big players in free agency, and 2020 should be no different. Time to tamper those expectations...

Don’t expect Steelers to have another splashy free-agency period

By: Brooke Pryor, ESPN

A year ago, the Pittsburgh Steelers opened the NFL free-agency period with an exclamation point.

In a move largely uncharacteristic of the organization, the Steelers, who began 2019 free agency with $21.3 million in cap space, signed cornerback Steven Nelson to a three-year, $25.5 million deal — the most lucrative free-agent deal in franchise history for the first week of unrestricted free agency — on the second day of the period.

Soon after, they added wide receiver Donte Moncrief on a two-year, $9 million deal to fill some of the void left by Antonio Brown and then signed linebacker Mark Barron to a two-year, $12-million deal.

With those moves, the Steelers dedicated a large chunk of their cap space to players who didn’t develop in Pittsburgh’s system.

To read the full article, click HERE (Free)

• Sadly, the Steelers are on this list far too many times...

Expanded NFL playoffs are here: Ranking the best just-missed teams of the last 30 years

By: Aaron Schatz, Football Outsiders via ESPN

Here come the 7-seeds! NFL players just approved a new collective bargaining agreement that will move the league to seven playoff teams per conference, starting this season. Is that going to let several lesser teams into the postseason tournament? Based on win-loss record, of course — most 7-seeds will be 9-7 or even 8-8.

But based on play-by-play analysis, not all of these teams will be relatively weak. On average, the 7-seed would not be as good as the sixth seed, which is usually not as good as the fifth seed. But there have been some very good teams that just missed the playoffs due to a combination of luck, schedule strength and performance in close games. Including seven playoff seeds will let some of these teams into the postseason, with hope of a Super Bowl title despite an unimpressive win-loss record.

The NFL’s current structure of six playoff teams per conference began in 1990. What if the NFL had just gone straight to 7-seeds back then? We’ve gone all the way back to find the best would-be 7-seeds according to Football Outsiders’ DVOA (defense-adjusted value over average) ratings, explained here. Note that a number of the best teams to miss the playoffs aren’t even listed below. The 2004 Buffalo Bills are the only team to ever miss the playoffs with a DVOA rating above 30%, but the Bills would have only been the ninth seed because of tiebreakers. Other particularly strong teams that wouldn’t have been 7-seeds include the 2002 Miami Dolphins and Kansas City Chiefs as well as the 2005 San Diego Chargers, all of whom had DVOA above 20%.

To read the full article, click HERE (Free)

• It has been prime time for the Steelers, and likely will be again in 2020.

Lights, camera, action

By: Mike Prisuta, Steelers.com

Mike Tomlin’s fondness for referencing the significance of what transpires “in stadiums when the lights are on” might have something to do with how well the Steelers have traditionally performed in primetime.

They went 3-3 in such situations in 2019, which mirrored their overall mark of 8-8.

But that included a pair of wins on Monday Night Football, 27-3 over Cincinnati on Sept. 30 and 27-14 over Miami on Oct. 28.

And those two victories ran the Steelers’ winning streak in home games on Monday nights to 18 (since a 23-20 loss to the New York Giants on Oct. 14, 1991).

Some other Monday Night nuggets:

-The Steelers’ all-time record of 48-24 for a winning percentage of .667 on Monday Night Football trails only Seattle’s .722 (26-10).

-The Steelers’ 48 Monday Night Football victories are second only to San Francisco’s 49.

-The Steelers’ 27-5 home record for a winning percentage of .844 on Monday Night Football is the NFL’s best.

-And, the Steelers’ 27 home wins on Monday Night Football rank behind only Miami’s 34 and San Francisco’s 28 since Monday Night football debuted in 1970.

To read the full article, click HERE (Free)

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