Steelers MMQB: NFL Pro Bowl Wrap Up

What We Learned In NFL Pro Bowl Weekend:

• No one plays defense in the Pro Bowl
• Brandon Marshall could really benefit from a good quarterback
• Bruce Arians un-retires and joins the Colts staff
• Ben “not happy” about Arians leaving

Well there aren’t a whole lot of lessons to learn from the Pro Bowl.  These guys clearly made the decision before the game started that no one was going to try too hard to ensure no one got hurt.  I’m sure Goodell was watching the game thinking, “This is awesome!” but for the rest of us who enjoy actual football, it was pretty much the worst game ever played.  The two teams combined for 100 total points and a gazillion yards of offense with the AFC team taking the victory 59-41.  I don’t even think any players were wearing mouth guards or full pads in this game.  For those who enjoy deep passes that aren’t covered at all by corner backs and quarterbacks trying field goals, than you were at least entertained.

I don’t know what can be changed about the Pro Bowl; clearly the nature of the sport doesn’t lend itself to allow for a competitive All-Star game because no players or coaches will risk injury for a game that doesn’t count for anything but an extra paycheck.  Congrats to the Steelers who played and enjoyed themselves, Ben Roethlisberger, Antonio Brown, James Harrison, Ryan Clark, and Mike Wallace.  Dolphins WR Brandon Marshall took the MVP honors of the game with 176 yards, on six catches and 4 TD’s.  Maybe the Dolphins front office was paying attention and realized that it’s time to stop screwing around and finally get themselves a viable quarterback.  Ben threw a TD pass to Cincy’s AJ Green which made most of Steeler Nation throw up a little in their mouths.  I know it’s a popular thing to complain about the Pro Bowl, it’s not meant to be competitive but at this point it’s not even that entertaining.  The saddest thing is that there’s probably no way anything will change with it anytime soon anyway.  Despite it being incredibly boring and not aggressive in the least bit, the Pro Bowl gets ridiculous ratings and for the NFL that means $$$.  Just another thing the Commish doesn’t care how fans feel about it.

With all the “hype” of the Pro Bowl going on this week there was plenty of drama going on in Pittsburgh with the Bruce Arians situation.  Last week it was announced that Bruce Arians had “retired” from coaching.  Immediately following, rumors began to swirl that Arians had been forced out by Art Rooney II, in an attempt to get the offense back to “Steelers Football”.  Ben gave an interview where he admitted not being happy about losing Arians and that he wanted to have a sit down with Mr. Rooney and Tomlin to see what direction this offense is supposed to go.  Tomlin hasn’t been available for comment at all during this.  Saturday, Arians was named as the Indianapolis Colts’ new OC and Sunday reports were swirling that the Colts had also poached the Steelers LB Coach Keith Butler.  Butler has since denied that a deal was done but did admit to having an interview with Indy this Tuesday.

So not even a full month into the Steelers off-season and already some drama going on.  My take on it is that the organization made themselves look a little silly by announcing Arians’ departure as a “retirement”.  If Rooney wanted a change and to switch things up, he has every right, after all his last name is Rooney.  They simply didn’t renew his contract because they no longer want his services, fine, I get that, but to call it a retirement thinking that makes it noncontroversial is a little silly.  Besides the fact that it kind of makes Tomlin look a little bad because he immediately said following the Denver game that he assumed the entire coaching staff would be back next season.  Rooney needs to have better communication with Tomlin, it’s clear that Rooney is in Tomlin’s corner but they need to be speaking the same language to the press as well.

Now with Ben speaking up and asking for this meeting he is taking criticism for speaking out of turn and having too much emotion involved in dealing with Arians.   Ben took Arians with him to Hawaii as his personal guest so the emotions from the whole “retirement” drama are still fresh with them as well.  To say though that Ben is out of place for wanting to speak with the owner and coach about what they expect out of the offense, in my opinion, is wrong.  Ben is the franchise quarterback and he’s got every right to know going into the off-season, what direction the team is headed, especially with the clear lack of communication that is going on.  Ben is the leader of an offense that this season had all the nice stats, except for scoring.  Ben needs to know his place is not to make coaching decisions, but he does need to know what direction this offense is going.

Hopefully, the drama in Pittsburgh settles down once a new OC is named.  It’s hard to judge where they are leaning towards either promoting from within or bringing in an outside guy.  Finding a way to get under that salary cap will take a whole lot of attention so this coaching drama needs to be settled by then.  Until then we have a week of the Super Bowl build up to stomach.  I’ve seen the David Tyree helmet catch replay about half a billion times so far and I’m guessing they’re not done replaying it anytime soon.  I also caught a replay of Super Bowl XLV that made me want to throw the TV out the window watching that last pass go right out of the hands of Mike Wallace again.  Hopefully I won’t be home when they decide to replay Super Bowl XXX or the TV is in serious danger.

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