Steelers Turmoil

Uncertain Future in Pittsburgh

The 2018-2019 season for the Pittsburgh Steelers had a disappointing end to it. Things are just falling apart left and right. They were moving along strong in the AFC North with a 7-2-1 record and first in their division with talks about the playoffs.

Then, things took a turn for the worst. The Pittsburgh Steelers lost three straight games to the Broncos, Chargers, and the 2-10 Oakland Raiders. They still had hopes of making the playoffs when they took care of business against the Patriots and remained number one in the AFC North. They next went into one of the hardest places to play in, New Orleans, and had a close game with the Saints. However, on the last drive of the game, with 37 seconds left, Juju Smith-Schuster fumbled as the Steelers were going into field goal range to possibly tie the game and cost them the game.

After this extremely tough loss, the Steelers playoff hopes then relied on one team. The Cleveland Browns. For the Steelers to make the playoffs they would need the Browns to take care of the Ravens and the Steelers would need to beat the Bengals. With 1:10 seconds left in the game, the Bengals backup quarterback Jeff Driskel dropped back on a 4th and 5 and his pass was incomplete. Pittsburgh had just about secured the football game.

Now, it was out of the Steelers hands. In Pittsburgh, they had the Cleveland Browns vs. the Baltimore Ravens game on the jumbotron in Pittsburgh.With 1:06 left in the game, Baker Mayfield dropped back, and threw. The ball was batted up into the air and CJ Mosley picked it off. It was at this moment that hearts were broken in Steelers Nation.

Antonio Brown did not play in the final game of the regular season. At first the team listed it as a knee injury, but information would reveal that he, Ben Roethlisberger, and Head coach Mike Tomlin had a heated exchange.The teams owner, Art Rooney, believes that Antonio Brown, also known as AB, will not even show up to training camp in July. With Le’veon Bell already separating himself from the team, it is a very dysfunctional scene in Pittsburgh right now.

Rumor has it that Brown wants out of the organization and has possibly requested a trade. On Brown’s Twitter, he has removed Pittsburgh Steelers from his bio. Supposedly, the word around town is that Brown wanted to take his talents to The Bay in San Francisco and join the 49ers. He proceeded to follow the niners on Instagram. He also decided that he did not want to participate in the Pro-Bowl and “teammate”, as of now, of course, Juju Smith-Schuster was entered in to replace Brown.

Early after the Steelers season was ended shorter than they planned they made changes. They fired Outside Linebacker coach Joey Porter. This was Porter’s fourth season as the Steelers Outside Linebacker coach.

 

Steeler players, coaches, and most of all fans were all disappointed with the 2018-2019 season. Steeler players did not do bad as individuals, with six of them making the Pro Bowl, but in the second half of the season did not play well as a team. Hopefully the Steelers will be able to turn it around next season and put all of this behind them.