'We've Had Enough Of This!' Steelers' Art Rooney II Wants Playoff Wins
The Pittsburgh Steelers haven’t won a playoff game in eight seasons, and the president of the team Art Rooney II has made it very clear that regular season wins just won’t cut it anymore.
“We’ve had enough of this,” Rooney said. “It’s time to get some wins. It’s time to take the next steps. There is some urgency here, for sure.”
Clutchpoints
He isn’t the only one who thinks the Steelers need to break this drought. NFL.com’s Nick Shook believes that the Steelers have to have a successful playoff run for this season to be a success.
“Look, I don’t mean to speak for all Steelers fans here. However, while it’s great to have a head coach who has never had a losing season, how about more seasons where you win a Super Bowl? Heck, how about winning a playoff game? The Steelers haven’t done that since 2016!” Shook wrote.
“I know many of you might be too young to know about Tom Landry — a longtime Cowboys coach who went years without a losing record but won just two Super Bowls, thanks in large part to the Steelers teams of the era. Tomlin just signed an extension, so he’s not going anywhere. But at some juncture, you need to realize that you’ve been on the stairway to seven for a while, and it’s time to do some more winning in the postseason.”
Tomlin’s three-year extension will keep him in Pittsburgh for the foreseeable future, but many coaches have been fired with a contract still in place. Rooney, through all of his frustration, is still happy overall with Tomlin as their head coach.
“The players still respond to Mike and that’s No. 1,” Rooney said.
“He still has the key characteristics that we saw when we hired him. He can keep the attention of a group of 20-year-olds for a whole season and keep them in the fight the whole way. Still feel good about Mike. Obviously, if I didn’t, we’d make change. If we didn’t think Mike was able to lead us to a championship, he wouldn’t be here. That’s why he’s here.”
Predicting how the Steelers will do this season is a tough one. Russell Wilson is currently slated as the starting quarterback and the team has yet to land a big fish receiver to pair with George Pickens.
They didn’t pick up the fifth-year option of Najee Harris’ contract, and they are in their first year of a new offense with coordinator Arthur Smith.
This is a lot of moving parts that all tip the scales on success or failure. While the Steelers would love to have a playoff run this year, it looks like they just might be a year or two away from truly contending.