The silence has been deafening.
For months — heck, it has seemed like years — this corner of The Era’s sports section has been reserved for stories about the Steelers and their disfunction.
Drama surrounding Le’Veon Bell and whether he would or wouldn’t report to the team; friction between Ben Roethlisberger and his current and former teammates; and then, of course, Antonio Brown and whatever he was doing from December to when he got traded to the Oakland Raiders in March.
It’s been a constant stream of negative headlines and distractions for the team that seemingly had no end in sight.
Until now.
Over the past few weeks, stories at Pittsburgh’s minicamp practices have instead focused on positional battles, from the offensive line to the two-man battle for punter. It has focused on X’s and O’s and on actual football news.
Pittsburgh signed Ben Roethlisberger to a contract extension, and locked up all nine of its draft picks to rookie deals. There is growing optimism surrounding first round selection Devin Bush as well as mid-draft selections such as defensive back Justin Layne and running back Benny Snell Jr.
Not only is it good for the players in that locker room to see the narrative has finally shifted from the negative to the positive, but it has to be good for the fans as well.
Conversations at the water cooler have shifted from, “What a jerk that Antonio Brown is” to “Who do you think will win the battle for starting right tackle?”
In addition to being good for morale, I’m sure it has led to fans picking up more jerseys and tickets in the weeks since the team formally moved on from the two biggest pieces of disfunction.
On the field, however, it may prove to be a different story.
While Bell and Brown probably cost the Steelers in terms of team chemistry, their production on the field can’t be taken away.
Not to rub it in, but Bell’s numbers in black and yellow — 5,336 yards rushing, 2,660 receiving, and 42 total touchdowns — combined to produce one of the best five-year stretches for a running back in NFL history. But in that same breath, the drop off between Bell and James Conner shouldn’t be that severe.
Conner ran for 973 yards on just 215 carries last year, and reached the endzone 12 times.
Barring injury, those numbers should be on the rise in 2019 with an experienced offensive line once again paving the way.
The wide receiver position may be a different story.
Antonio Brown, in truly a world of his own, went over 1,000 yards in seven of his eight seasons in Pittsburgh, and reached paydirt an incredible 75 times. Most of his 104 catches and 15 touchdowns last year will be distributed to JuJu Smith-Schuster come the fall. But what made the Steelers offense so dangerous in years past is that they had multiple weapons to keep opposing defenses from keying on just one guy.
The current crop of names on the Steelers depth chart isn’t going to scare off too many defensive backs. James Washington, Donte Moncrief, Eli Rogers, Ryan Switzer, Dionte Johnson and a slew of other young, unproven players highlight Roethlisberger’s targets this season.
If that group is going to have any of the success Steelers fans are accustomed to, they’ll need one of those players to step up. My guess is that Pittsburgh will put Johnson, its third round pick out of the University of Toledo, in every position to succeed early in the year. He’ll have an opportunity, and if he snatches it, will be on the field just about every play.
But again, these are the conversations that Steelers fans weren’t afforded the opportunity to have for the better part of a season.
It feels nice to be talking about strategy and statistics rather than what message a player is trying to send with his t-shirt on a given day, doesn’t it?
Let’s hope for the sake of fans, and for the 53 guys in that locker room, that can continue for an entire season.
(Anthony Sambrotto, the Bradford Era Sports Editor, can be reached at asambrotto@bradfordera.com)
