“I’m happy being here and want to finish this year in the right manor to kind of push us in the offseason and get ready to get better next year.” – Todd Haley’s comments about coming back to the Steelers as OC in 2013. Mandatory Credit: Charles LeClaire-USA TODAY Sports

The coaching carousel moves fast in the NFL.  Just Monday seven head coaches were given the ax and the “hot lists” of replacements are changing everyday even as some are predicting not all firings are complete yet.  Within the first two days following “Black Monday” former Eagles head coach Andy Reid surfaced as the leading candidate to replace former Steelers OC Ken Whisenhunt as head coach of the Arizona Cardinals (aka Steelers West).  Within a day of those reports, Reid is all but reportedly inked his deal as head coach of the Kansas City Chiefs instead.  Now Arizona is left to fill the spot they ousted Whisenhunt from and are looking towards western Pennsylvania.  Thursday the Cardinals requested permission from the Steelers to interview Todd Haley for their head coaching position and the Steelers obliged.  Mostly because it seems Arizona just cannot help themselves but want everything and anyone that’s been through Pittsburgh.  Granted, Haley has previously served as OC for the Cardinals but geez, these guys can’t get enough of the Burgh’s sloppy seconds can they?  What could this mean to the Steelers?

As far as the internet is showing most yinzers are ready to pack Haley’s bags for him and start the car headed for Arizona.  You can’t totally blame them.  Even Tomlin in his final press conference of the season called the Steelers offensive troubles their “Achilles Heel” of the season.  Furthermore when Tomlin was asked to evaluate his respective coordinators his description of Dick LeBeau was glowing compared to the comments made in regards to Haley.  In response to the question of how he thought Haley performed in his first year as offensive coordinator of the Steelers Tomlin stated,

“He was an 8-8 coordinator.  Like I was an 8-8 head coach.”

As much as most Steeler fans are hoping Haley jumps ship for the Cardinals, the Steelers offense in the beginning of the season was the strength of the team.  It was the defense that was the initial Achilles ’ heel with 4^th quarter collapses against Tennessee and Oakland but once the Steeler defense got their bearings and improved, the Steelers offense started to tank.  Most of the tanking coincided with injuries, to be fair.  Not only did the Steelers lose Ben Roethlisberger, but they also lost Mike Adams who had been instrumental in providing the blocking that allowed the rushing game to succeed for the few games that it did.  Along with Adams, Willie Colon went on IR for the third straight season and last year’s team MVP Antonio Brown missed some games as well.   When the Steelers offense was succeeding, time of possession and third down conversions were off the charts but when Ben returned to the lineup the wheels fell off and nothing was working.  The main point is that at some point, Haley’s offense was very successful here in Pittsburgh.  The derailing of the offense can be attributed to many things other than Haley himself.

No one was more criticized as an offensive coordinator than Bruce Arians.  The dude couldn’t win for losing here.  The whole damned town was ready to explode the next bubble screen that was called.  But Ben loved him some BA.  What Ben and other BA fans never liked to admit was the season before this one the Steelers were bottom of the barrel in red zone scoring and that was the major Achilles ’ heel of the season.  I do believe the whole Bruce Arians to Todd Haley transition was handled very poorly by Art Rooney II.  And now I think giving Arizona permission to interview Haley is making it even worse.  Rooney has every right in the world to fire and hire a coordinator if he wants to, it’s his team.  Masquerading the firing as a retirement was the first misstep and then it just snowballed from there with Tomlin feeling like he had to make a point to say he was in on the decision, and the whole Ben didn’t say hi to Haley drama went on from there.  The fact is Haley was hired because he’s a proven coordinator who can get the best from the strengths of his players.  Whether or not Roethlisberger and the rest of the offense “bought in” completely to the Haley offense remains to be seen but with the way they performed in the beginning of the season and then completely flipped the script in the second half of the season means that they were lacking one main thing and that’s consistency.  You don’t get consistency by switching OC’s over and over again; just ask Kordell Stewart how that worked out.  The Rooney’s don’t look very good by granting this permission, in my opinion.  Give Haley more than one season at least in the hopes that you don’t have another season involving roughly 294 injured players and see if his offense can produce all that you hoped it could.

In the chance that Haley accepts a head coaching position elsewhere and the Steelers offense are left to fill the vacancies of coordinator and line coach what will that say for the 2013 season?  The only bonus I can think of is that it might provide the opportunity for RB coach Kirby Wilson to be promoted to OC, as he was considered the main front runner to take over the OC position until he was involved in the house fire last season and had to undergo extensive therapy in order to return to work.  I think the locker room would respond better to Wilson than it did to Haley and the continuity could turn out to be a moot point as it would be a promote-from-within position rather than installing an entirely new offense with entirely new terminology the team would need to learn for the second offseason in a row.

What are your thoughts, Steeler Nation?  Would you like to see Haley return as OC for the Steelers or are you excited at the notion that he might be off to Pittsburgh West?

Follow me on Twitter @Kimmy_KimKimM and follow all of NPC’s posts @NicePickCowherC

Happy Birthday Pittsburgh Steelers

What We Learned This Week in the NFL Offseason:

• Former Giant Amani Toomer says Tony Romo is better than Eli Manning
• Vikings’ Adrian Peterson Arrested for resisting arrest
• Still no progress in contract talks between Steelers and Mike Wallace
• The Pittsburgh Steelers turn 79 (more…)

Camp's out for summer. Let's head to Kennywood! Mandatory Credit: Charles LeClaire-US PRESSWIRE

The Steelers are about to embark on their summer vacations before returning to Latrobe for the official start to the 2012-13 season.  By all accounts OTAs and Minicamp were successful as the team transitions to a younger defense and a brand new offense.  Of course it’s difficult if not impossible to truly judge how successful the team will be under these changes considering there were no pads or hitting involved, but most if not all of Steeler Nation is very optimistic about the upcoming season.  However it’s not that easy to keep the warm and fuzzies about the situation considering there is some definite unfinished business to attend to.  The question on everyone’s mind –besides whether or not Big Ben’s son will be born during the season or not- is how much longer will Mike Wallace go without signing? (more…)

Yeah, I had just about enough of those bubble screens too. Mandatory Credit: David Richard-US PRESSWIRE

Mike Tomlin spoke for the first time since his end of season presser last week at the NFL owners meetings in South Florida.  Among the topics he spoke about was the whole Arians/Haley situation and his role in it.  Tomlin made it a point to say that the decision to change offensive coordinators was his and not something that was controlled by Art II as previously speculated.  With the way it all went down with Arians “retiring” and then popping up as Indy’s new OC a week later and then Haley coming out of the blue as the Steelers new OC, is Tomlin really setting the record straight or just saving face? (more…)

With Thanksgiving upon us, here are some things I’m thankful for, Pittsburgh Steelers-style.

I’m thankful for:  Charlie Batch

The first month of the season could have been a real mess thanks to the ridiculous suspension of Ben Roethlisberger.  It could have been an even bigger mess when Dennis Dixon went down with an MCL injury.  But Chaz stepped in and guided the Steelers to within 50 seconds of an undefeated start.

I’m thankful for:  Skippy’s wooden leg.

Jeff Reed forgot one important fact; he’s a kicker.  Kickers are like umpires or little children, the best ones are those you hardly know are there.  Nobody wants to hear from a kicker, especially when it has to do with contract complaints or restroom rage.  But when he hits 90% of his FGs, there isn’t much you can do.  So while his stunning ineptitude only really cost the Steelers one game (Ravens), it’s nice to finally be rid of the Heatmiser once and for all.

I’m thankful for:  Sean Kugler and Al Everest

My doctor certainly appreciates Everest’s work in keeping my stress level from going through the roof on every kickoff/punt like it did last season.  Hopefully we’ll be seeing a lot less of Captain Faircatch (Antwaan Randle-El), too.   As for the Kugler, this offensive line pretty much defines the term “patchwork.”  And yet everybody seems to be playing up to their ability or surpassing it.  An extra drumstick for both.

I’m thankful for:  the 5th round pick we got for Santonio Holmes

Thankful we didn’t just give him away for free.  Yeah, he was an idiot.  And, yeah, I’d rather have Mike Wallace.  But it’s pretty clear ARE and the rookies aren’t the same as having both Holmes and Wallace.  Watching ‘Tone make big play after big play for the Jets this year annoys me to think we gave up such a talent because of some phony stance on player morality.  And for such a bargain basement price!

I’m thankful for:  Drunk college girls

At the risk of turning this into the NPC version of KissingSuzyKolber’s hilarious Sex/Fantasy Football Mailbag, let’s remember the best part of college; random hook-ups.  Yes, even us dorks who went to CMU had fun (thank god for slutty Pitt girls).  Of course, the great tragedy of collegiate debauchery is while the women are loose, they don’t really know what they’re doing until they’re much older.  That’s why everybody loves a cougar.

So let’s give thanks that when Ben decided to get his freak on, he did it with a drunk sorority girl wearing a DTF name tag.  Whether she used teeth or can’t control her gag reflex, we’ll never know.  But whatever she did was so lousy, not one single drop of semen was found in the bathroom, on her clothes, or anywhere on her person.  Because we know if that pious witch-hunting D.A. had even a microscopic amount of evidence, Big Ben would be sitting at home right now preparing for his trial instead of leading us on our climb up the Stairway To Seven

I’m thankful for:  Roger Goodell’s stunning lack of ambition

Let’s rejoice that the Ginger Dictator doesn’t harbor any political dreams or national ambitions.  Can you imagine this man as a Senator or even our President?  If this country were run as shoddily and haphazard as he runs the NFL, we’d be France.

I’m thankful for:  Some horse in some stable somewhere

That horse’s great-great-great granddaddy won a race.  And because he won that race, Art Rooney was able to start a football team.  Sure, I don’t always agree with what they do but would you rather have Dan Snyder or Mike Brown?  When you look at all the idiot owners in the NFL, we’re truly blessed to have such a great family steering the ship lo these many years.

And finally, I’m most thankful for: