Rooney says entire team had hand in playoff miss
The Steelers will make no more coaching changes, but a member of next season’s staff likely will assist Mike Tomlin in the areas of challenging officials’ calls and in clock management.
Those were a few of the many topics touched on and statements made by Steelers president Art Rooney II in his annual postseason review Wednesday afternoon with seven beat reporters who cover the team.
And while he also said the team wants to extend the contract of quarterback Ben Roethlisberger, he would not commit to doing so with Tomlin. The coach has two years left on his deal, traditionally the time the Steelers have entered talks for an extension.
“Those are things we’ll get to sort of later in the offseason,’’ Rooney said of a new deal for his coach, “so we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.”
Rooney called the 2018 season in which the Steelers finished 9-6-1 and out of the playoffs as “tough to swallow.”
“When you miss the playoffs, nobody gets absolved ... I think everybody knows we need to do better, including Mike.”
Rooney said there were many reasons they failed but mentioned two in particular:
“Number 1 was the lack of even an average kicking game,” Rooney said. “For some inexplicable reasons, our kicker [Chris Boswell] went from one of the best in the league to one of the worst in the league. Games we won close last year we didn’t win this year.”
And No. 2 was the terrible turnover ratio that “is always something hard to overcome and we need to address going forward.” He said they can address it on defense “by finding players that can do that.”
In a long list of other topics mentioned by Rooney during the 20-minute interview:
• He has had no contact with Antonio Brown and has had no trade discussions with anyone for him. As far as him returning for 2019, there are “not many signs out there that that’s going to happen.”
Brown, however, did receive his final check for the final game even though he skipped practice all week and did not play. “He probably did what he needed to do to avoid his last check being voided.”
• Asked about having someone assist Tomlin with clock management and/or coaching challenges, Rooney said, “I agree with you, having someone with that responsibility I think is important. Mike and I have talked about that. I’m not sure that person is the only thing he needs to do. Somebody on the staff who kind of has a role to fill there.”
• The Steelers would not close any doors on Le’Veon Bell in 2019, but, “It looks like we have two good young players at that position at this point, so I feel like we’re in pretty good shape there.”
• Roethlisberger will turn 37 in March, but Rooney said, “I feel good about where Ben is physically, mentally, his ability to be a productive player for multiple years. I think we feel good about trying to extend his contract.”
• The Steelers defense has “certainly room for improvement
but I think you could say we took steps in the right direction.” However, one of those was not the secondary, which is “an area where we need to improve on; obviously not being able to hold on to leads in some games is another cause for concern.”
• He also believes they need to address the linebacker position.
Outside linebacker Bud Dupree is due a $9.2 million salary, the fifth-year option, which becomes guaranteed March 13 if not rescinded.
“I’m not going to try to predict anything as far as his contract,’’ Rooney said. “Bud had some good games and some other games that were probably not what you would want. But I think there was some progress this year, so we’re looking for some progress from him again next year.”
• Ryan Shazier’s contract is up, but the Steelers might sign him to another one.
“Ryan I believe, still intends to rehab with the intention of trying to come back and play. To the extent he wants to do that, we’re open to working that out. There are some technicalities about somebody going from staff to player. We’ll have to address it as time goes on and figure out how that works. He would have to have a [player] contract.”
• On Mike Munchak leaving as line coach to take the same job with the Denver Broncos to be close to his daughter and granddaughter: “We had every intention of keeping him ... I understand the reasoning.”