The Pittsburgh Steelers should take notice of what the Pittsburgh Penguins are doing.
The Steelers have refused to change the look of the team for the past three seasons. Usually when a team loses their franchise quarterback and their other stars are aging, they hit the reset button.
However, the Steelers have reached on quarterbacks and haven’t made any significant coaching moves. They drafted quarterback Kenny Pickett with the 20th pick in the 2022 NFL, but he is no longer on the team. They filled their vacant offensive coordinator job with the previous head coach of the Atlanta Falcons – who had been fired because of how he underutilized their star players.
The team is also too comfortable with Head Coach Mike Tomlin, who hasn’t won a playoff game since 2016. But hey, at least he has never had a losing season.
The Penguins have realized what situation they’re in and are taking strides to get back to their previous glory.
They traded star player Jake Guentzel, whose contract was set to expire, to the Carolina Hurricanes before last season’s deadline. And they just traded defenseman Marcus Pettersson and forward Drew O’Connor, in return receiving highly ranked prospects and a first-round pick.
The Penguins have also shown loyalty to their aging stars by keeping together the core three of Sidney Crosby, Geno Malkin, and Kris Letang. Their goal is to surround their young talent with their future hall of fame players to develop the younger players.
The Steelers’ most recent championship was in 2009, and the Penguins won back-to-back championships in 2016 and 2017. The Penguins have made more moves in recent years to get back to their winning ways than the Steelers have in over a decade.
A lot of complaints have been made about Tomlin. But more of the blame should be put on Steelers owner Arthur Rooney II, because he is the one who is too comfortable with the Steelers’ mediocre ways.
