When you look at the Steelers 2013 season so far, there are a lot of things that you can point a finger at and say that's what is wrong. It has applied to the offensive line, the secondary, the running game, the tackling on defense and the coaching. The target for most of the blame for the myriad of the teams issues is Todd Haley followed by Mike Tomlin, and while they have made their share of mistakes, like having "The Human Ice wagon" Jericho Cotchery run a wide receiver end around, they can only get so much out of the talent available to them. The issue facing the Steelers is plain and simple, it is a glaring lack of Talent which has led to the lack of execution of the game plan on both sides of the ball. Let's start off with the issues on offense first.
On all the social networks, when it comes to criticism of the offense, the greatest share of the blame overwhelming share of the blame goes to Todd Haley, which is quite unfair. Todd Haley designs the game plans on a weekly basis, Todd Haley doesn't drop passes, doesn't turn the ball over. He also doesn't miss wide open receivers, fail to execute plays or fumble footballs either, the players do. The players are paid well to go out and execute Haley's game plans and during his time in Arizona, his players did a great job executing his game plans as did his players in his first year in Kansas City. If you remember back to last year, the Steelers offense was beginning to roll until injuries began hitting the offense including Ben against The Chiefs. Those teams had impact players, quite a few of them. This year the Steelers have only 3 impact players on offense, Ben, Antonio Brown and Heath Miller and a horrible offensive line. I don't know another OC who could do much more with this offense than Haley has. My biggest complaint is why Markus Wheaton isn't seeing the field more. Haley needs to utilize his explosiveness and speed.
On Defense, the problems are just as glaring as they are on offense. They didn't create their first turnover until week 5 and it came against a rather poor offense with a rookie quarterback. While it was nice to hold the Jets to 6 points, that's like me beating my 10 year old son in a game of one on one basketball, sure it's a win but it's nothing to brag about. When I look at the defense, I see maybe two impact players, Troy and sometimes, Lawrence Timmons, although Jarvis Jones and Shamarko Thomas will be, they aren't right now. The rest of the defense is just plain lacking in talent and very inconsistent considering they spent high draft picks on guys like Ziggy Hood and Cam Heyward, who have yet to develop. The tackling on this unit so far this year has been shoddy and undisciplined, which is highly uncharacteristic a Dick LeBeau defense. Much like the offense, this unit needs an influx of young talent if this team wants to be a Super Bowl contender again. For as bad as they've been on defense, I'm surprised LeBeau isn't getting as much Criticism as Haley and Tomlin do.
Mike Tomlin gets the criticism he does because he is in charge of the product that is put on the field. I've read that he is can't motivate and prepare his team. He can't coach and has lost his players. Once again, you can only get so much out of the players you are give, which once again, isn't much. He proved he can lead a talented group of players by taking Cowher's players to two Super Bowls and I have no doubt he could take another talented roster to the Super Bowl, but that isn't going to happen as long as Kevin Colbert, the root of the Steelers problems, is the one building the roster. He has proven to be a failure on his own without Bill Cowher holding his hand on draft days. Maybe it is time for the Steelers to start giving Tomlin more of Cowhers players to coach by firing Colbert and hiring Tomlin to replace him. Why not? since Bill Cowher players have made three trips to the Super Bowl, and let's face it Steelernation, Super Bowls are what we are all about.