The Pittsburgh Steelers 2023 Season is over after their disappointing 31-17 loss to the Buffalo Bills in Orchard Park. This latest First-Round Playoff debacle has fans of the team questioning the very fabric and culture of the team they love to their core. This is an NFL franchise built on championships, and have been far from that level since at least their 2016-2017 AFC Championship appearance. The City of Champions is beyond restless at this point. They are starved for a real contender, especially when it comes to their favorite NFL team.

Fortunately for Steelers fans, with the close of the disappointing 2023 season comes a season of hope. As the new horizons of the offseason get underway, I wanted to give my personal blueprint for the Steelers to make the leap from also-ran to contender in 2024. Let’s start where we must: at the top.

RETAINING MIKE TOMLIN WAS THE CONTROVERSIAL BUT CORRECT START

The road back to tangible relevance began just a day after their early playoff exit, with embattled Head Coach Mike Tomlin announcing to players that he will indeed be back in 2024, despite some rumors to the contrary. For many fans, Tomlin is the big problem and as long as he is the Head Coach of this football team they will never get over the hump. For others, like myself, Tomlin’s return is welcomed, albeit with the understanding that significant changes in philosophy and staff accumulation are required.

The rhetoric around Tomlin has been that he has embraced a standard of mediocrity as long as he keeps his teams above .500 and on the edge of playoff contention. While his coaching hires and stubbornness to stick with unsuccessful patterns have definitely fed that narrative, there’s one issue that stands tall above the rest as the biggest reason for that inability to move from competitive to contender: The Steelers haven’t fielded an elite QB since at least 2018.

The list of signal callers in that timeframe includes an aging Ben Roethlisberger, Mason Rudolph, Duck Hodges, Kenny Pickett, and Mitch Trubisky. None of those guys, not even Big Ben late in 2020 and 2021, played at a level becoming a Franchise QB. All you have to do to validate Tomlin’s status as one of the best coaches in football is to look at the records of his peers in similar QB situations. With the rare single-season exception here and there of limited success, it’s a long list of now unemployed coaches and last-chance candidates. Heck, even the almost consensus greatest coach of all time, Bill Belichick, has recorded a pitiful 63-75 record all time as a head coach without Tom Brady as his QB, including 2 straight losing seasons in 2022 and 2023. Meanwhile, Tomlin’s teams are always in contention at the end of the season.

There was not controversy in the building about bringing Tomlin back. Our sources inside the Steelers organization tell us that Tomlin and Art Rooney II have a fantastic relationship and are raring to go for 2024. While many fans are ready to wipe the slate clean and start from scratch at head coach and elsewhere, Mike Tomlin’s return sets a high floor. It’s all about building from there.

ROLL OUT A BLANK CHECK FOR A REAL OFFENSIVE COORDINATOR

The NFL in 2024 is an offense-driven league. Eleven of the top 12 offenses in terms of points scored this season made the playoffs. The Browns, Buccaneers, and Steelers finished 16th, 23rd, and 25th respectively in that category. For Pittsburgh, that looks even worse if not for two 30-point performances in Weeks 16 and 17 after Mason Rudolph took over at QB.

If you break it down even further, it’s evident that you need at least one of two things to be a true contender in today’s NFL: An elite offensive system, or an elite Franchise QB. Seven of the eight Divisional Round squads meets this criteria. Teams like San Francisco and Detroit boast the former, with masterful offensive schemes that keeps defenses off balance and forces them to cover the entire field. Teams like Buffalo and Baltimore sport top 5 QBs capable of taking over games all by themselves. There’s a rare few that have both like Kansas City, Green Bay, and Houston. On rare occasions, a team with neither earns some good fortune and finds their way in, like Tampa Bay this year, but that has proven to be unsustainable.

The Steelers do not currently have a surefire franchise QB at the helm of the offense, nor do they have a clear path to finding one this offseason. The quickest way then for Pittsburgh to take the next step from competitive to real contender is to hire an Offensive Coordinator (OC) capable of installing an elite system designed to make life easy for the QB and play to the strengths of the unit’s playmakers. Mike Tomlin and Art Rooney II have (hopefully) learned the hard way that going cheap at OC is unacceptable in today’s game. The Steelers must spend whatever it takes to get a real offensive mind in the building that can adapt and succeed in 2024.

We could sit here and debate systems and specific candidates all day, but for me the biggest question Mike Tomlin and co. should be asking is “can you identify and then maximize the talent we have on the roster right now?” The guy who can see beyond the system and X’s and O’s enough to recognize that George Pickens has a chance to be an All-Pro Wide Receiver and that Pat Freiermuth can be a game-changing weapon in the middle of the field, and that will scheme them up accordingly. A guy who can figure out what Kenny Pickett does well and how to maximize those traits. And lastly, a guy who’s offense can dictate to defenses and force them into uncomfortable situations through play action concepts and modern passing concepts. That’s what I’m looking for in an Offensive Coordinator, and AR2 needs to be willing to do what it takes to bring a guy like that in.

FILL IN THE OFFENSIVE COACHING STAFF WITH GUYS WHO FIT THE NEW OFFENSIVE SYSTEM

The final part of my coaching revamp gameplan is simple: let the new OC bring in guys who fit and can teach his system at every level. The offensive line needs to be coached by a guy who’s going to teach technique’s that suit the OC’s designs. The Quarterback needs to be coached by someone who can help him see what the OC sees and think like he thinks. Sync it all up and watch the magic happen. There can be no retaining of offensive staff members just for “consistency’s sake”. It’s time for a philosophy change on that side of the ball, and it starts with the coaches.

Keep an eye out for Part 2 of this mini-series detailing my Gameplan for the Steelers offseason. Part 1 was purposefully offensive-driven, but Part 2 will dive into position groups that need fine-tuning this offseason if the Steelers want to make the leap in 2024.