Wednesday, January 9th, 2008 by Adam Wagner
On Mike Tomlin’s season-ending press conference
Mike Tomlin was not full of regrets Thursday, addressing the failed two-point conversions amongst other topics of concern for Steeler Nation.
Tomlin has received way too much heat over the two-point conversion calls, particularly considering the game situations at both times. The first time, the Steelers needed the two to get within a field goal of the Jaguars. After they were penalized back to the 12 yard line, however, the conversion does not make that much sense. At that point, Tomlin probably should have kicked the field goal. The second conversion then made sense because the Steelers still would have lost even if they had kicked the extra point, which would have made the final score 31-30 Jacksonville.
The big picture was also addressed, as Tomlin stated that a season is not a success unless the Steelers win the Lombardi Trophy. That seems hard to believe, as a team that has as many question marks headed into a season as the Steelers did this year, including a question mark at quarterback, a Super Bowl hangover, and a rookie coach filling the shoes of a likely Hall of Fame coach, should consider winning a division a success, particularly one like the AFC North where even the “bad” teams could beat most teams (not the Patriots) on any given Sunday.
Tomlin addressed the offseason briefly, stating that the team has weaknesses on both the offensive and defensive lines, which became readily apparent to anyone watching Thomas Jones rushing for over 100 yards against the team on Nov. 18 or Fred Taylor post his 147 the first time the Steelers played the Jaguars. The issues with the offensive line were apparent all season, as Ben Roethlisberger was sacked 47 times, the second highest total in the league. Part of this was due to injuries and another part may have been due to Roethlisberger holding the ball for a little bit too long (at least two of his six sacks against Jacksonville were his own fault). It is impossible to deny, however, that the offensive line was pathetic this season and could be absolutely abysmal next season, especially after Tomlin addressed Alan Faneca by saying that it is all about the money.
That likely means that Faneca, the versatile lineman who has played his entire standout career with the Steelers, is on his way out after this season. This seems especially true after taking the contracts of last season’s free agent offensive linemen into account. Langston Walker, a huge underachiever, received a 5-year, $25 million contract with the Buffalo Bills and Darnell Dockery, a pretty good football player but nowhere near Faneca’s level, received a 7-year, $49 million contract ($18 million guaranteed) from the Bills. Faneca will undoubtedly be looking for a contract along these lines, but the Steelers tend to not give those types of contracts out to free agents. If they want to sign their players, they do it before they hit the open market (see Troy Polamalu), not after.
A case study in how the Steelers handle contract negotiations with their stars could also be present this offseason, as Kevin Colbert will be working hard to sign Roethlisberger to a long-term extension, with the deals that Tony Romo and Marc Bulger signed before this season probably serving as a blueprint (both are for six years, Romo’s is for $67 million and Bulger’s is for $65 million). Roethlisberger, who cemented himself as a franchise QB this past season, undoubtedly deserves this money and resigning him should be a main priority for the team, along with rebuilding both lines and building depth at pretty much every other position (linebacker, secondary, wide receiver).
The Steelers should be proud of what they accomplished in 2007, but they must start working immediately to avoid a huge disaster in 2008.
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