BALTIMORE – It was unsurprising and unspectacular, another Pittsburgh Steelers season ending with a whimper instead of a winner.
One of the NFL’s flagship franchises ended its 2024 campaign with its fifth consecutive defeat, a 28-14 loss Saturday to the hated Baltimore Ravens in the wild-card round of the playoffs that was more decisive than the final score indicates. Pittsburgh’s drought since its last postseason win will extend to at least nine years. The Steelers, who’d hoped to climb the stairway to Super Bowl title seven some time ago, are now 16 years removed from their most recent Lombardi Trophy and only seem to be receding behind teams like the Ravens, Buffalo Bills and, certainly, a Kansas City Chiefs squad aiming for the league’s first championship three-peat in nearly six decades.
You could see this team’s demise coming – in fact some did five months ago before its campaign even began. I, for one, thought the Steelers would be much better off trying to build around a young, multi-dimensional quarterback like Justin Fields rather than fading veteran Russell Wilson, perhaps by focusing on incremental gains with youth and potential even if it meant one step back – perhaps longtime head coach Mike Tomlin’s first losing season? – before taking substantial strides forward in the future. Now, both Fields and Wilson are headed toward free agency, the team will almost certainly have to reboot (again) at football’s most critical position, all while the future of Tomlin – he benched Fields in October after a promising 4-2 start for Wilson – seems to be coming under increased scrutiny as his team continues to spin its wheels…