The Jig Is Up: Steelers Offseason, Vol. 7
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.
It’s about the spot, not the sticks and chains
It was announced this week the NFL is planning on moving into the 21st century in 2025 and start using technology to measure first downs and scoring plays next season. While I am happy they are taking this step, I still have one big question.
Is this just for getting the yards to gain, or will it also dictate the spot of the football?
The reason I ask this question is based on the fact if the technology isn’t going to spot the ball, I don’t see this being as earth-shattering as many others might. If humans are still spotting the ball, there will be plenty of mistakes made, just like we saw on the Josh Allen run in the AFC Championship game.
Those NFLPA grades aren’t meaningless
Recently the NFLPA released their annual report card for all 32 NFL teams, and the grades for the Pittsburgh Steelers weren’t that great. Miss the grades? Check them out HERE. Some in the fan base have just shrugged off these grades, calling them meaningless. I’m not in that camp. While I don’t think all the grades are significant, I don’t think they are meaningless either. When you see the negative grades on things like the Dietician, Strength Coach, and Ownership…that doesn’t mean nothing. In reality, it is the sign of an organization who needs to be great from top-to-bottom.
Let’s use the strength coach as an example.
This was this individual’s first year in the job, and what was he most known for?
Russell Wilson injuring his calf on the first day of training camp. After that? Being publicly criticized by Mike Tomlin and the soft tissue injuries sustained during the season. Now a pretty sub-par grade in the NFLPA report card.
Not a great look.
Rooney II admits to necessary changes
Speaking with those grades, many feel the Steelers suffer from having to share a facility with the University of Pittsburgh. Fair enough, but there comes a point when the team physically can’t add on to their current facility on the South Side of Pittsburgh. The team would have to sink serious cash into renovations, or potentially build a new facility, one which was only a Steelers facility.
Art Rooney II talked about this with Jenna Harner a few weeks ago. Check it out:
When I sat down with Art Rooney II after the season, I asked him about any plans in terms of potential upgrades or changes to the practice facility — either now or in the near future — because of how players have responded to this survey
Here’s what he told me ⬇️⬇️ https://t.co/KXHRpVXS8L pic.twitter.com/MfGkDNNIkv
— Jenna Harner (@JennaHarner11) February 26, 2025
The Steelers at least recognize the path they’ll have to go down, but what they choose to do will be interesting.
When Combine results matter, to me
There are always fans who are constantly looking at the NFL Scouting Combine results and combing through them with a fine-toothed comb. Not me. There are a lot of factors involved with how players test on a particular day. If a player doesn’t sleep well, maybe they wake up the morning of testing with a tight back, or their stomach might not feel the best and it can impact their results. There are a million different facets which can alter a player’s overall results.
So, when do the results matter to me? I like to look back at the combine results after the player is drafted. Looking at the RAS (Raw Athletic Score) and their combine “web” showing their rank and strengths is always great for getting a glimpse into what kind of prospect the Steelers drafted. Other than that, I choose to let the play on an actual football field dictate what kind of player was drafted, not numbers during a workout.
2024 Has changed everything, as it pertains to trades
Before the 2024 offseason the Steelers were very predictable in how they handled business. Keep your draft picks, make fiscally smart free agent moves, rinse and repeat. But last offseason was different, especially when it comes to the team’s willingness to move players via trade.
- Diontae Johnson was traded to the Carolina Panthers
- Kenny Pickett was traded to the Philadelphia Eagles
- Justin Fields came to Pittsburgh via trade with the Chicago Bears
While I don’t expect this to happen every offseason, it at least shows there is a willingness on the part of Omar Khan and company to make a trade if the price is right.
Will it happen this offseason? There are people who are hearing Khan at the Combine talking about players and thinking that solidifies their spot on the team. It was at the same Combine a year ago when Khan said the team had full faith in Kenny Pickett, and we all know how that played out.
Stay tuned.
Ban the “Tush Push”??
On this week’s The Way We See It podcast I do with Wesley Coleman for the FFSN NFL podcast feed we talked about the NFL Competition Committee being tasked with reviewing the “Tush Push” play for 2025. The Green Bay Packers were the team who wanted the play to be deemed illegal, and some feel this is a drastic decision.
A recent review showed there were no injuries across the league on this style of play, and it makes the league deeming it illegal very unlikely. But if the league were to go down this road of trying to eliminate the play, there is a simple solution the league could make which wouldn’t stop teams from lining up in that formation, but the execution of the play.
To make a change you have to go back to the NCAA rules pre-2013. Before that year it was illegal in college football to push a teammate forward in any capacity. If the NFL wanted to ban this style of play, adopting this rule would make the “Tush Push” illegal and force teams to change the way they handle short-yardage situations. I should note in 2013 the NCAA allowed the pushing of a runner. Pushing still remains illegal in high school games.
This absolutely could be opening up Pandora’s Box, and some might say taking a step backwards in the league, but if the defense gets a rule which helps them for once, I’d be okay with it. Otherwise, will we ever see a team who “pushes” their way all the way down the field? I’ll be interested to see how the league handles this during the offseason.
Mock Draft Madness
NFL Mock Drafts are going crazy right now with the Combine here, but I don’t put any stock into these mock drafts until free agency has calmed down. Until then, team needs change too much from the start of the new league year until the NFL Draft rolls around. In other words, it’s too early to start putting stock into mock drafts, in my opinion.
Player Spotlight
I wanted to start doing a spotlight segment every week during the offseason of a lesser known player who donned the black-and-gold for a time.
This week’s player: Sean Morey
Morey played for the New England Patriots and Philadelphia Eagles before he suited up for the Steelers. And he played for the Arizona Cardinals after his stint in Pittsburgh and finished his career with the Seattle Seahawks, all while being a primary special teams ace.
After his career, Morey had a stint coaching a Sprint Football Team at Princeton University. Since being removed from that position, Morey is now a high school football coach at Notre Dame High School in Lawrenceville, New Jersey as a Defensive Coordinator. Morey is also an activist for concussions in the game. In May 2014, Morey was a part of the group of plaintiffs who filed a formal objection to the National Football League Players’ Concussion Injury Litigation and Proposed Settlement being overseen by US District Court Judge Anita Brody. The objection sought to highlight what some players see as a narrow scope of the settlement, claiming, among other things, that “The settlement would have compensated only a small subset of injuries to the exclusion of all others.
Morey spent 2004-2007 with the Steelers, and was on the Super Bowl XL team.
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.
The Tush Push should probably be banned. The NFL has a long history of creating rules that are meant to negate unfair advantages that one team might have over another. Defensive players used to be able to spring board off of the center to block field goals. It was unfair because it’s not possible for the center to counteract this move while snapping the ball. Chop blocking was legal before 2016. This was unfair because defenders can’t prepare for or defend them. Back to the Tush Push, people can say “defend them better” all they want but it’s impossible because offensive players know when the ball is going to be snapped while defenders don’t. That little bit of extra time is what ultimately makes the play work. If defenders knew the snap count, the play wouldn’t have as much success as it does. Just get rid of it.
To me, just saying “The Tush Push is outlawed” won’t work. There will be a ton of ways for the NFL offensive coordinators to find work arounds to that. Hence why I suggested to eliminate the pushing of a player, which would also eliminate that weird “slow whistle” plays when a ball carrier looks down but gets shoved forward for 7 more yards.
Yeah, that’s fair. I just think that the way the play works now, it’s mostly indefensible in that offense gets a head start. It has to go. Somewhat jokingly, I think that a team can run that play exclusively and they would win more games than they would lose.
Don’t give Tomlin and Arty Smith any ideas! LOL
I think this is a better idea than banning it. IIRC, it’s a flag for carrying players over so I think pushing them over gives an unfair-ish advantage.
Regarding the spotting of the ball, I agree that “going digital” is going to have minimal effect for the reasons outlined above. So long as humans are spotting the ball, the results of that spot will never be completely accurate.
A chip needs to be placed in the nose of the football (both of them) and then be traced to track ball movement. Problem solved. No, it won’t be perfect as the “was he down or not” questions will still exist in conjunction with the location of the chip. It will be a lot more accurate than what we have now, though.
If they use the technology to spot the ball, even if it is part of replay assist, I think that would fix a lot of the issues. But if the ball being spotted by humans is still happening, this won’t matter much outside of scoring plays.
The chip would not have to be in the tip of the ball. It is fine in the middle of the ball knowing what the exact length of the ball is. That’s how it works.
I actually thought about that and I don’t think that the center of the ball would work as the ball isn’t always perpendicular to the length of the field. If a runner is tacked and the tip of the ball is facing a sideline then the runner is would be getting a few more inches on a spot than was actually made. A chip in each end would just about assure that one of them is the true furthest point forward. Yeah, it’s splitting hairs.
Now, I think that the middle of the ball would be fine IF it’s accepted that the middle of the ball is where spots are determined. IE, even though the front of a ball crossed the goal line, the chip didn’t so no touchdown.
You’re putting a constraint on things that isn’t necessary. The chip doesn’t have to be at the point it is measured. The chip just needs to be in the ball at a fixed location and orientation. From there it can know the entire 3D outline of the football. It will know which part of the ball is the farthest forward. We have this technology. Think of an airplane. We don’t need chips in the front, back, and all over the plane to know where its full dimensions fit in space. One chip in a fixed location and orientation would know the distance to the nose, the tail, each wing, etc.
I am pro tush push ban, and I know if it was easy everyone would do it.
I just don’t like it because it is a clear exploitation of how down by contact and forward progress is enforced. The tush push largely focuses around the QB staying on the top the pile, and surfing forward. It is impossible to lose yards on this play, as you are immediately moving forward, and there is a human barrier between you and the ground preventing you from being down. That’s not good for the game.
IMO the simple fix is to ban pushing on sneak plays. Don’t ban it anywhere else, as it is too hard to enforce. Bring skill back to the sneak. make QBs identify potential gaps, and hit them.
What would be considered a sneak play? If it is 2nd and 4 and we run the play, is that a sneak? There’s a lot of moving pieces to this…no easy answer.
Prior to 2005 it was illegal to push a ball carrier. They changed the rule at that time because they said it was too difficult to officiate whether the offensive player was pushing the ball carrier or someone connected to the ball carrier trying to tackle him. What they kept as illegal was carrying or pulling a runner.
I really don’t believe it was that difficult to officiate this rule. I remember it being called and it’s a judgement call just like any other foul being called in the game “was that a hold or not?” “Was that pass interference or not?” “Was he pushing the ball carrier or blocking the tackler?”
I think reinstating this rule would be better for the overall game of football.
Jeff is right when it comes to changing things with the tush push in that what it would do was not allow the offensive team to push the ball carrier forward. The defense is not allowed to push on their own defenders. How was that fair? That’s why there’s an unfair advantage to the offense because they are allowed to push their players while the defense could be penalized for doing the same thing.
And again, the offense has the benefit of knowing when the play starts whereas the defense doesn’t. That might not seem like a big deal but reaction times and the subsequent physiological responses to them are noteworthy.
They always have that benefit and always will. That’s an advantage on every play and is never going to change, making it a voided variable. What you’re saying is true, but it’s not something that changes how the play should be officiated. But allowing one side to push teammates in a scrum and not allowing the other is, and always has been, wrong. It should be both or neither. That would be like allowing one side to jump for the ball but the other has to keep one foot on the ground at all times.
Always loved Sean Morey! Love that idea!