In the 1970s, Chuck Noll helped lead the Pittsburgh Steelers out of the gutter. They went from one of the worst teams in the league to a dynasty. Since then, they haven’t looked back, being one of the most stable franchises in the NFL. The standard is the standard, as Mike Tomlin likes to say. Unfortunately, the Steelers have been a little more underwhelming in recent years, and Jerome Bettis thinks that they haven’t met the standard.
“The standard has already been set,” Bettis said recently on The Zach Gelb Show. “Now, it’s up to each team to get to that standard, and they haven’t. They haven’t met that standard. They understand that. That’s why they’re doing all the things they can possibly to do to keep themselves in striking distance of that standard.
“But it’s an uphill battle. Right now, they’re in a situation where they’ve got this playoff caliber defense, and they’re trying to find a way to keep this offense relevant enough where it can be good enough to support this really, really good defense and this group of guys that the clock is ticking.”
Bettis is correct that defense has been carrying the Steelers over the past few years. Meanwhile, their offense has been in disarray. Last year, that unit improved slightly, but it was clear that it still wasn’t firing on all cylinders.
Enter Aaron Rodgers. While he’s not the same quarterback that he used to be, the Steelers brought Rodgers in with the hope that he can get them over the hump in the postseason. Much like Bettis’ early years in Pittsburgh, the team is being held back by inconsistent quarterback play.
The Steelers signed Tommy Maddox, and he helped them win a playoff game in 2002. Perhaps Rodgers, another veteran quarterback the Steelers signed who wears No. 8, can help repeat history.
However, that still might not meet the Steelers’ standard. Their goal is to win championships, and just winning a playoff game might not be good enough in some people’s eyes. Still, it would be a nice step in the right direction. It would at least be a break from the mediocrity that the Steelers have been stuck in.
Unfortunately, for the Steelers to get back to meeting the standard, they’ll likely need to find their next Ben Roethlisberger. It wasn’t until he came along that Bettis finally won a Super Bowl. In today’s NFL, it’s tough to be a championship contender without a franchise quarterback. Until the Steelers find their next franchise guy under center, they’ll probably continue to fall short of their ultimate goal.
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