The Future of The Pittsburgh Steelers

The NFL season is over and it is time for all teams in the NFL to return to the drawing board. The Pittsburg Steelers had a decent season – the made it to the playoffs after defeating the Cincinnati Bengals in the AFC Wildcard Playoff game! Although they lost in the playoffs to the Denver Broncos, they played better than expected in spite of the injuries their players suffered during the season.

Since it is now time for the off-season, the Steelers have an opportunity to improve their team by finding the missing pieces they need to make their dynamic more solid. The Steelers have the 2016 NFL Draft to look forward to; there, they will have the opportunity to make some key trades to earn a better pick in the draft. In addition having an opportunity to rebuild the team from players in the draft, the Steelers also need to focus on position improvements.

A major position the Steelers need to improve is their Safety position. If the Steelers don’t improve this position during the off-season, they will suffer next season. They do have Mike Mitchell, but due to a high rate of Steeler players being injured, they will need a backup safety for Mitchell. They have some in house players that could contribute to this position like, Will Allen and Robert Golden, but I believe they should look for a player outside of the Steelers organization.

The Steelers organization should put their focus toward resigning some key players to make sure the team still has some weapons for next season. I think they should re-sign Ramon Foster, William Gay, and Brandon Boykin. Foster would be a great asset to the left guard position and the Steelers could offer him less money this contract because he is approaching the end of his career. William Gray, on the other hand, has been a solid cornerback for the Steelers this season. Despite being 31 years, he proved himself this season in playing a major role in the Steelers’ defense. To help contribute to the cornerback position, the Steelers need to re-sign Boykin. He didn’t receive too much playing time this year but he definitely strengthened the his team’s secondary defense during Week 13, when he was able to show off his defensive capabilities.

Another major position the Steelers need to hone in on is the quarterback position. Ben Roethlisberger is a phenomenal quarterback when healthy. However, Roethlisberger has been the starting quarterback for the Steelers since 2004 and has taken a fair share of hits. This year, he missed a few games due to injuries and was barely able to play during the playoff game against the Broncos. Roethlisburger is 33 years-old and not getting any younger, so having a secondary quarterback who can take the workload off Roethlisberger when necessary would benefit the Steelers during the playoffs.

The Steelers will be in decent shape if they make the right decisions during the off-season. They finished 30th vs. the past, in 2015, so they have to build up their secondary team to strengthen themselves as a unit. If they focus on building their secondary team, this could help them deal with injuries which should give them hope for next season’s Super Bowl.