The Jig Is Up: Steelers Offseason, Vol. 6
Recently I was thinking about my time writing about the Pittsburgh Steelers. Throughout my career doing so, I’ve essentially done it all.
Commentary, news, breaking stories, features and even took a stab at simple film room breakdowns.
The one thing I’ve never done is work on just a random thought type format.
I can’t speak for you, the reader, but I am always thinking about writing and the Steelers. Thinking about different aspects of the team and game. Thanks to reading Myron Cope’s biography I decided to put a unique spin on this type of feature.
Now, for the name of the article, anyone who is familiar with the Styx song “Renegade” should know where it came from. If not, this is where it came from…
The jig is up, the news is out
They finally found me
The renegade who had it made
Retrieved for a bounty
Nevermore to go astray
This’ll be the end today of the wanted man
The jig is up…time for some randomness.
No easy fixes with this roster
As we start to look forward to 2025, and not so much back to 2024, you can see the holes on the Steelers roster. Some are gaping, while others might be simpler to rectify. Either way, you realize that even those which some might consider “easy” fixes, when you add up all the holes there are no easy fixes with this roster. For those who might just be tuning in, you can see how this roster isn’t ready to compete for a championship, for a lot of reasons, but this offseason can be a big stepping stone towards that ultimate goal.
The Steelers salary cap situation is really nice, if they spend it wisely. More on that…
Salary Cap Hell No More
Steelers fans often look back on the Ben Roethlisberger era with fond memories. How could you not? The man won the team two Super Bowls and got to a third. But the one thing I don’t miss about the end of the Roethlisberger era is how cap strapped the team was. Some might even say the team was in Salary Cap Hell.
With the early projections for the 2025 salary cap, the Steelers will have roughly $60 million dollars in salary cap space. I can’t remember a time in my life, since the salary cap went into effect, the team has had this much money to spend. It’s intoxicating to think about what could come of this money to spend, but if it is spent poorly it will only set the team back.
Omar Khan has been waiting for a situation like this, and it’s time for him to put his money where his mouth is…literally.
Depressing Draft Class
For those who didn’t notice, I just wrapped up my 2024 NFL Draft recap series of articles and I just couldn’t get over how depressing this draft class was from top-to-bottom. Now, that doesn’t mean every player was bad, but this draft class was a continual gut punch when you consider the excitement after the draft and then seeing how it actually played out.
How could you summarize this draft class? Payton Wilson, the one with injury concerns, was the only player to not miss a game. On top of that, four players had stints on Injured Reserve (IR) with two of those four not even playing a snap in a regular season game in 2024.
The hope is this group is able to come into 2025 and be ready to contribute. The team will need big-time performances from players like Troy Fautanu and Roman Wilson, both players who fans were excited about yet playing sparingly due to injuries last season. Sure feels like a boom or bust class entering 2025.
Underwear Olympics Coming Up
In case you didn’t know, the Underwear Olympics, also known at the NFL Scouting Combine, is coming up Thu, Feb 27, 2025 – Sun, Mar 2. As the invited prospects descend on Indianapolis, the reports will start about injuries, sketchy backgrounds, and weird stories or social media posts from players’ pasts. Just remember to keep things in perspective. A blazing 40-yard dash time doesn’t mean they’ll be a significant player, see Dri Archer. Likewise, a player labeled as “injury prone” doesn’t always mean they can’t stay healthy in the NFL, see Payton Wilson. Let the Olympics begin!
Tampering Is Already Underway
The NFL has tried changing the name of the two-day period before free agency begins to the “Negotiating Period”, but it will always be the “Legal Tampering Period” for me. Despite the oxymoron, it’s also funny if people don’t think these negotiations, or tampering, doesn’t happen all offseason; however, the official tampering starts when the brass of all 32 teams head to Mobile, AL for the Senior Bowl. From there, it is all about teams communicating with agents and representatives to try and find ways to get deals done. You didn’t think these deals which get announced on March 10th, the first day of the legal tampering period, had all their details hammered out on that individual day, did you?
Will the Steelers be big players in the Free Agent Frenzy?
I already spoke about the money the Steelers have to spend, but my hesitation for excitement isn’t if the Steelers will sign the right players, but if they’ll take a different approach. The Steelers typical free agent methodology has been:
- Sit and watch the first wave of free agents be signed, don’t want to overpay.
- Find some players who fill needs who are on the tail end of the first wave.
- Sign some second wave players who fill need.
- Pick up some scrap heap players after the second wave and the NFL Draft have concluded.
With the amount of money the team has, they can be aggressive in the first wave, but will they? Some might say last season they were aggressive in their signing of Patrick Queen, and I’d agree by contract, not necessarily timing. Queen wasn’t a Day 1 signing, that was punter Cameron Johnston. I’m very intrigued by how the Steelers handle free agency this season, for obvious reasons.
Soundtrack of my childhood now gone
I know this is a Steelers website, but people who listen to my podcasts or read my writing know I am a Pittsburgh fan, not just a Steelers fan. I am a Steelers, Penguins and even Pirates guy. I often go back to my youth and some magical moments in the early 90s when the Penguins won back-to-back Stanley Cups, the Pirates were in the NLCS (don’t want to talk about that) and the Steelers with Bill Cowher at the helm were getting ready for their run at AFC Championships and Super Bowls.
Throughout those years there are voices who become soundtracks to your youth, and one of those was the impeccable Mike Lange. Lange did stints with both television and radio for the Penguins, and was the absolute best in so many ways. His ability to paint the picture of a play on radio was second-to-none. But what made him truly special were his calls after goals were scored.
If you don’t know what I’m talking about, here was a TSN Top 10 list of Lange’s legendary calls…there were many left off this list:
A Top 10 of Mike Lange calls. RIP to a legend pic.twitter.com/gaSgvysUcm
— Jeff Hartman (@JHartman_PIT) February 20, 2025
When I think about my youth the voices I grew to love are almost all either retired or gone now.
Pirates: Lanny Frattarie (Retired)
Penguins: Mike Lange (Gone)
Steelers: Bill Hillgrove (Retired), Myron Cope (Gone), Tunch Ilkin (Gone)
Greg Brown of the Pirates is carving out his own space with the Pirates, and he does a tremendous job, but you don’t replace Lange. He was one-in-a-million. RIP to a legend.
An Appreciation Message
Yesterday was my birthday, I turned 42, and many sent me messages wishing me well. I wanted to thank everyone for taking the time to do that, it does mean something to me.
But I also wanted to take a minute to thank everyone involved with this Steel Curtain Network project. When we left Behind the Steel Curtain we stepped into the unknown. Starting over isn’t easy, and it isn’t for everyone. When you go from the immediate enjoyment of a well-established website/system to a start-up, it isn’t for the faint of heart. It takes plugging away without the comments, without the proverbial pats on the back, and without a lot of fan fare. But for those who stuck it out, and we lost several along the way, I wanted to say I appreciate you. I appreciate your work. I appreciate your dedication. Even to those who are new to SCN, my appreciation is extended to you as well!
In just a little over a year we have seen some serious growth, and even since getting the new website we have seen even more growth in just the weeks we’ve had the new “digs”. I stand by the work we do here, and the focus on quality of quantity won’t ever change. I hope SCN has become one of your stops for daily Steelers coverage, because I’m not going anywhere.
I used to tell my teams all the team, you are either thriving for barely surviving. For me, I choose to thrive. Onward and upward from here, and I hope you all join us for the ride!
That does it…the jig is up, they’ve finally found me. This renegade is outta here…be sure to stay tuned to SCN for the latest news and notes surrounding the Steelers as they prepare for the offseason.
I didn’t find this class to be depressing! Every player that played contributed well.
I think all three players that remained healthy could be second contract players.
I think TF, if his knee problems aren’t chronic, is a second contract player based on the small sample size we saw.
I have not thoughts on Roman Wilson.
and lastly
Logan Lee and Ryan Watts were late round picks so I never had any expectations for them.
The injury bug was unfortunate but not depressing!
I agree with you. There’s a lot to like so far in this draft class. Still early, but I think at minimum Frazier is the guy for the next 10 years. And thats being conservative. Fautanu by all accounts was good and Payton Wilson looks like he’s the future as well
I feel like I could have stated how this class was “depressing” better…so I’ll do that here.
After a draft class you get extremely excited to see what they can do in Year 1. This Year 1 for anyone other than Zach Frazier, Mason McCormick and Payton Wilson was depressing. Depressing because I think there is a lot of talent in this group, but we didn’t get to see it.
I’m not suggesting this class is a bust, just that Year 1 didn’t see that excitement come to fruition. Still a lot of hope for years to come with the 2024 draft class.
I guess in retrospect depressing might be the right word, as I was also very excited to see what Fautanu could do.
“ Payton Wilson, the one with injury concerns, was the only player to not miss a game.” Wow
When it comes to the Steelers cap situation and how things were tied with Ben Roethlisberger, there’s something we need to remember. Yes, he was drafted before the CBA in 2011 which really defined rookie contracts, but the Steelers never won a Super Bowl with Roethlisberger where he wasn’t on a fairly low cap number early in his career. Once his contract exploded, outside of the uncapped year of 2010 which was still a relatively small hit, the Steelers didn’t have enough cap space to balance both offense and defense. I think that’s the biggest reason why they didn’t win another Super Bowl. Keep that in mind.
When you talk about the balance between offense and defense, I often wonder who is the person tasked with making sure there is more balance among these sides of the ball. Is it the GM? Was it Khan in his previous role? Tomlin? AR2? All of them?
Clearly you will pay generational/franchise talents like BR7 and AB, but at some point you have to invest evenly, right?
Good question on investing evenly. Also depends on the definition of investing.
But yes, I think you do. Think of the lack of OL succession planning with the OL that Pouncey anchored. Most of them got long in the tooth about the same time. It was easily foreseeable (eg, I foresaw it!), but they got caught with the pants about the ankles and the team is just now finishing paying dearly for years for that mistake.
And the same things has just happened with the DL. How many 1st or 2nd rounders have they drafted for the DL in the last 10 years. Shockingly low number. And for a team that thinks it wants to live and die by running and stopping the run? Makes you wonder what management is thinking.
Happy birthday.
Personally, I think that Tom Brady is the biggest reason why the Steelers didn’t win more championships in the Ben Roethlisberger era. Peyton Manning too for that matter.
Tom Brady also made an average of $3.5 million less per season when with the Patriots than what Ben did with the Steelers. Taking less money let them add a little bit more around him. The Steelers never won a Super Bowl with Ben counting more than $8 million against the cap. When he was coming in at $26 million, they didn’t have enough money to put a better team around him without hitting on every draft pick (which they obviously didn’t).
I think we will continue to see the cap situation remain the same. So far in the Omar Kahn there seems to be a belief in short contracts and a willingness to move after those two-year deals. That means you are constantly churning the bottom half of the roster which isn’t ideal from a continuity standpoint, but it also doesn’t lock you into a long deal with a borderline player. I think Preston Smith is a prime example of this type of thinking. The Packers signed him to big money, and they are counting him almost $10M against the cap in 2025. That said I see some Free Agency activity maybe a CB similar to Queen in contract (3-year). I like those deals because you feel pretty good about performance through the term.
Your soundtrack discussion is interesting. I am a little older zo I have some different guys. For me the Steelers were Fleming and Cope. Hillgrove and Tunch were good, but Hillgrove will always be Pitt to me. I do have to say that they really need to switch Wolfley and Starks for the game. Wolfley is much better as a sideline guy. In the booth you need a more cerebral analyst today. The days of having a Cope in the booth is really over. What can anyone say about Mike Lange other than he was a legend in Pittsburgh.
When it comes to the Pirates and Steelers, the pieces they have calling games now can rotate and it won’t move the needle much. Rob King did a good job in Year 1 from what I heard, but, like you said, Myron Cope’s aren’t really involved anymore. So you just need to have the best color analysts you can get. For the Penguins, there is absolutely no replacing someone like Lange, just like you can’t replace Cope. The difference is Lange was the PxP and not a color commentary analyst like Cope.
Both will forever be missed.
The real shame that Lange probably only had one good analyst to work with during his career. He probably had fun with the guys he worked with but what did Bob Errey, Paul Steigerwald, and Phil Borque really add.
You are absolutely right, and he could have done it all by himself probably. When you take a color analyst and move them down to ice level, they aren’t providing much outside of coming out of a TV break.
One thing to remember is Khan has not held on to draft picks who didn’t pan out. But all of his draft picks are still on rookie deals. Will he be so quick to move on when they are players he helped select? We won’t know for a couple more seasons.
Very good point