“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?

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Wilson covers most of his body when outside to protect his healing burns. Credit: Vincent Pugliese-US PRESSWIRE

The back of his neck, his face and fingertips.  Those were the only parts of Steelers’ RB Coach Kirby Wilson’s skin that were exposed to the open air Thursday as he took the field with his fellow coaches and players in Latrobe.  You see, one who is recovering from second and third degree burns can’t be exposed to the sun – so Kirby needs to not only wear tons of sun screen, but also cover as much of his body as possible.  Less than seven months after being severely burned in a house fire, Wilson not only walked onto the field, he jogged.

‘You don’t know how much it means to us. For us players who know Kirby and have a relationship with him, it truly is special. To see him walking around and kind of getting a little jog in almost brought a tear to my eye.’     ~ Ben Roethlisberger

And so for Wilson, today signifies a large step in the healing process.  Wilson’s odyssey from critical condition to jogging on a football field with his teammates is nothing short of inspirational.  As the summer months wane into fall, so to will Wilson’s burns turn into complete scar tissue.  The man who, as rookie RB Chris Rainey put it, ‘cheated death’ will move on and continue coaching as his focus lazers in on this complex roster of running backs.

As one his own continues to heal from ACL surgery, Wilson must distinguish who is ‘the stud’ of the group and will quite literally carry the running game for the first half, if not the entirety, of the season.  Wilson believes most of these guys – Batch, Dwyer, Clay and Rainey will have to make their way through special teams first if they want to get reps at the RB spot.  Let’s just put it this way, it won’t be easy.  Even Redman is questionable in Kirby’s eyes because he, ‘really (hasn’t) done it over the long hurl.’

The healing doesn’t stop there.  This summer the ‘healing’ of the Pittsburgh Steelers ripples throughout the organization.

Wilson had his tragic accident just two days before the Steelers faced off and lost to the Denver Broncos in that surreal Wild Card game.  No player ever spoke of Wilson’s accident, near death experience, hospitalization or absence from the sidelines as an emotional excuse as to why they lost against the Broncos.  Just because they didn’t say anything doesn’t mean it didn’t weigh on each and every member of that team that day.  They lost that game, and they almost lost a coach and dear friend.  That Wild Card game was a very tough loss for a team that took its licks and verbal abuse during the course of the season, yet still ended up being rated the #1 defense in the league.  The wound of that loss against Tim Tebow and his Broncos runs deeply, and only wins this season will help that wound to scar over.

The offense will be healing this summer after several years of bruises from a Bruce Arians styled offense.  An offense that was rated 21st in point scoring last season will look to improve in the Red Zone under their new coach Todd Haley.  Ben Roethlisberger will continue to heal from his ankle injury and thousands of bumps and bruises caused by 40 sacks last season.  A newly youth injected offensive line should be the right prescription for what ails #7.

Big Ben isn’t the only one who finds himself under the healing spell of St. Vincent College.  LT Max Starks is back after knee surgery and will look to mentor rookie Mike Adams at that position during camp and maybe even give him a run for his money.  Willie Colon is healed again from injury and hopefully can stay healthy for the majority of the season.  Casey Hampton is making his way back, but quite possibly, rookie DT Alameda Ta’amu might heal the entirety of this defensive line if he can fill the shoes of Big Snack.

The healing is all over the campus of St. Vincent – Physical, emotional and mental.  Camp truly is a magical place for Steelers and Steeler Nation.  And this year it all starts with a man named Wilson as the true inspiration and catalyst for what will be a summer, and quite frankly, an entire season of healing.  The emotional stakes seem higher already.  Steeler Nation is humming with the energy of anticipation.  Can you feel the rumble in the distance?

Or maybe that’s just some guy in a beard showing up to camp in a tractor…….