GM’s vibe for 2020 beats ’19
But QB’s health clouds optimism
Despite the uncertainty of Ben Roethlisberger’s elbow injury, general manager Kevin Colbert said he feels better about the Steelers than he did at this time a year ago, even though the team was coming off a better statistical record.
But he also said the Steelers have to be “realistic” about how well Roethlisberger, who will be 38 in two weeks, will return from elbow surgery that ended his 2019 season after two games.
“He’s a great quarterback that suffered a season-ending injury to his right arm,” Colbert said Thursday in a meeting with local media. “Optimistically, he’s on schedule to return and we hope he returns to a better Ben Roethlisberger.”
Roethlisberger has met routinely with members of the team’s medical staff and will go to Los Angeles Feb. 21 to be evaluated by Dr. Neal El Attrache, the orthopedic surgeon who performed the surgery on the two-time Super Bowl-winning quarterback. At that time, it’s possible Roethlisberger can begin some light throwing with a Nerf ball.
“All signs are good at this point,” Colbert said. “We’re hopeful that he can make a complete recovery and, as of right now, he’s on schedule for that. Where it goes from here remains to be seen.”
Colbert said he feels better about the team that finished 8-8 because of the improved defense than the one that was 9-7-1 in 2018.
“I think our defense was really good last year, and they kept us in a lot of games,” Colbert said. “We always talk about when Ben was healthy and we held a team to 21 points, his record in is his career is 121-20. When we lost Ben, we knew we had hold to teams to lower than 21 points because we probably weren’t going to get 21.”
Colbert said that was the impetus to trade a first-round pick to acquire safety Minkah Fitzpatrick, whose immediate impact made him a Pro Bowl pick and firstteam All-Pro.
“Now, with Ben out, we have to hold a team to 17 points, and, when we were able to do that, we were 4-0 when Mason Rudolph was the starter,” Colbert said. “When Devlin Hodges was the starter, we took it down another notch and we said we got to hold teams to 14 (points) to win, and when we held teams to 14, we were 10.”
In their final 10 games, the Steelers held their opponent to 16.2 points per game. In that time, only three teams scored more than 21 points. They didn’t not allow any team to score more than 28 points after their seasonopening loss in New England (33-3). Conversely, the Steelers averaged only 14.1 points
in their final eight games and were the only NFL team to not score at least 30 points in any game.
“So, moving forward, I think our defense is better moving into 2020 than our defense was moving into 2019,” Colbert said. “I feel optimistic we will have (Roethlisberger) back. And I hope the health will kick back in for James Conner, Vance McDonald and JuJu SmithSchuster.”
Colbert also said he is comfortable with the current backups behind Roethlisberger — Rudolph, Hodges and Paxton Lynch, a former first-round draft pick who never appeared in a game. The Steelers also signed quarterback J.T. Barrett to the practice squad in late December, primarily to get the Steelers ready in case they faced Lamar Jackson in the season finale in Baltimore.
“I know they’re both young players, and they can still get better,” Colbert said. “We don’t want to dismiss Paxton Lynch. Paxton probably hasn’t seen the last of what he can do or we haven’t seen the best of what he can do. With the three young guys, that’s a good group. How we’ll feel in August, we’ll see, but we’re comfortable with them right now.”
Because of various injuries to Conner that caused him to miss six games and parts of two others in 2019, Colbert was asked if running back will be a priority for the Steelers in the NFL draft.
Conner finished with 464 yards rushing — 509 yards fewer than the year before and the first time since 1968 the Steelers’ leading rusher had fewer than 500 yards.
“James Conner had a disappointing season in James Conner’s viewpoint and ours, as well,” Colbert said. “Our point to James was, ‘You had an unfortunate year.’ The year before that, he was one of the best in the league.
“He’s still a young player. We think there’s something there. We know there’s talent there. We hope James can regain it. And, if he’s healthy, there’s no reason he shouldn’t. We don’t want to say we don’t have a starting running back because we feel we do.”
Then he added that Conner “suffered different injuries at different times. I don’t think that’s who James is. I hope we get back to the 2018 James. Where that goes, we’ll see.”
Despite being eager to get the 2020 season underway with the start of the NFL combine Feb. 23, Colbert left no doubt he is unhappy the team missed the postseason for the second year in a row, despite the many injuries to star players.
“We finished 8-8 and that is below the standards that are expected here, the standards we help set,” he said.
“When we lost Ben, we knew we had hold to teams to lower than 21 points because we probably weren’t going to get 21 points.”
— Kevin Colbert