Steelers’ Craftsmanship Rooney II: ‘We’ve had enough’ of playoff win dry season
PITTSBURGH — With the Pittsburgh Steelers’ final playoff triumph having come in 2016, proprietor and group president Craftsmanship Rooney II recognized Monday that there’s a developing sense of criticalness to conclusion the dry season.
“We’ve had sufficient of this,” Rooney said. “It’s time to urge some wins; it’s time to require these next steps.”
The pioneer for those another steps is obvious, Rooney said, as he voiced his back for coach Mike Tomlin.
“The players still react to Mike, and that’s No. 1,” Rooney said. “He still has the key characteristics that we saw when we contracted him. He can keep the attention of a group of 20-year-olds for a entirety season and keep them within the battle for the entire way.
“So, still feel great almost Mike. Clearly in the event that I didn’t, [we] would make a alter, but in the event that we didn’t think Mike was able to lead us to a championship, he wouldn’t be here, and that’s why he is here.”
In his end-of-season news conference, Tomlin said he anticipated to work out an expansion within the offseason. Rooney didn’t deliver an upgrade on the timeline for getting that done.
And in spite of the fact that Rooney said he didn’t essentially see a alter in Tomlin’s resolve entering this offseason, he recognized that everybody around the organization is feeling antsy approximately lifting the group past essentially making the playoffs.
“Certainly, there’s a resolve there and a assurance there,” Rooney said of Tomlin. “And I think I said some time recently, I think all of us that have been around for a small whereas are on edge to require this another step — and getting a small restless — and we ought to see the kind of advancement we all need to see. Mike believes that as firmly as anyone else within the building.”
The key to those following steps, Rooney said, is progressing the quality of quarterback play. In spite of the fact that he voiced bolster for 2022 first-round draft choose Kenny Pickett, Rooney recognized that Pickett needs to make strides within the 2024 season.
“We still feel great approximately Kenny Pickett and his future, but he knows he must work difficult to require the another step,” Rooney said. “And we’ve talked around that, and one of the things I think we preferred approximately Kenny in terms of his career at Pitt was that, how difficult he worked, and he took a step each year. So, we’re seeking out for that to happen here.”
Measurably, Pickett relapsed in a moment season that was perplexed with wounds and saw hostile facilitator Matt Canada let go midseason. As in his rookie season, Pickett begun 12 diversions, but his completion rate dropped a bit, from 63% to 62%, and his QBR slid from 53.6 to 38.4. He moreover tossed fair six touchdowns to four interceptor in 2023.
In the interim, longtime reinforcement Bricklayer Rudolph gave the Steelers a taste of what an offense with consistent quarterback play might see like within the last four diversions, counting the misfortune to the Buffalo Bills within the wild-card circular. With Rudolph at quarterback, the Steelers found the middle value of 24.5 focuses per amusement, well over their season average of 17.9.
Rudolph could be a free specialist, but, like Tomlin, Rooney communicated a crave to bring him back into the overlay this offseason.
“He did appear what we’re able of on offense, and the faculty we have here right presently,” Rooney said. “So that’s empowering. I do not know that we’ve seen [Rudolph’s] ceiling however. We drafted him tall for a reason and felt like he had a part of capacity, and so I think we saw that. So, he’s likely progressing to have some options, so it’s aiming to be a address of whether he needs to come back and whether we are able make a bargain to urge him back.
“But that being said, I still feel great almost Kenny and his capacity to create as well.”
