Steelers Offense Still In Bad Shape

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The Pittsburgh Steelers are still in bad shape when it comes to the offensive side of the ball. The team which was 21st in the league in total offense, 22nd scoring offense, and 21st in rushing last year has had their offense dramatically altered this off season, and not for the good. The team has lost Mike Wallace and Rashard Mendenhall to free-agency, and Heath Miller will most likely miss the 2013 season due to an injury. 

I figure all of these losses to an already inadequate offense with the help of a Ben Roethlisberger public campaign were the main reasons that the Steelers matched the Patriots offer of Emmanuel Sanders. Sanders isn't anything special but he's a decent player that Roethlisberger felt was worth keeping around. I trust Ben, always have, consider me team Ben. 

Even with the re-signing of Sanders, the Steelers are in trouble on the offensive side of the ball. Despite having a two-time Super Bowl champion and Pro Bowl quarterback in his prime, the Steelers decided to switch offensive coordinators. They went from one of Big Ben's best friends Bruce Arians to the very mediocre Todd Haley. 

Haley's offense is much different from Arian's in that he's about the dink-and-dunk method. That's fine but it doesn't match Roethlisberger's biggest strength, which is throwing the ball down the field. Roethlisberger's career yards per attempt and yards-per-completion are among the best all-time. Roethlisberger is only behind Aaron Rodgers in career yards per attempt for active quarterbacks and only Cam Newton currently has a higher career yards per completion. 

Roethlisberger can throw from the pocket but his strength and what has made him great and unique his entire career has been his ability to improvise and make big plays down the field. Haley's offense took that away. Hell, the Steelers barely threw deep last year and they had Mike Wallace. Yeah great play-calling you jackass. 

Not only that but I thought Haley was going to help improve the running game? After all he helped the Kansas City Chiefs get to the number one rushing attack in the league a few years ago. The Steelers were awful in the running game last year. Now they just let Mendenhall go and they have Isaac Redman and Johnathan Dwyer as replacements. Wait, those guys were practically replacements last year since the Steelers pretty much ran Mendenhall out of town. 21st in rushing and now there's no Mendenhall.....Yikes. 

Heath Miller's injury is even more concerning. Miller is Ben's go to guy. Miller is one of the most complete tight ends in the league. Right now the Steelers have to try and ease the pain of his loss for this upcoming season. Signing Matt Speath was an hilarious attempt to do that. Speath sucks unless you like huge tight ends that drop just as many passes as they catch, which isn't many in the first place. 

The Steelers need to draft a tight end, a receiver, and a running back in the upcoming draft. The problem is they have needs at nose tackle, outside linebacker, and safety as well. You're not going to hit on every single draft pick. Running back has to be the main priority. They can't afford to take a running back after the third round. Dwyer is not a staring caliber running back. He's a decent backup at best. 

The Steelers just don't seem to know how to build an offense around a franchise quarterback. Take a look around the league and see what the other teams that have franchise quarterbacks do when it comes to pointing talent around their qb's. 

The Atlanta Falcons have Julio Jones, Roddy White, Tony Gonzalez, and Steven Jackson at running back for Matt Ryan. 

The Denver Broncos already had two 1,000-yard receivers in Erik Decker and Dymarious Thomas from last year and they went out and signed Wes Welker! 

The Patriots lost Welker and Lloyd but they have a 1,2000-yard rusher in Steven Ridley and arguably the best tight end tandem in the NFL. 

Right now the Steelers offense looks like this: 

QB: Ben

RB: Dwyer (replacing Mendenhall)

WR: Sanders (replacing Wallace)

WR: Brown (who will now see more double coverage)

TE: ? They all suck. Every tight end on the roster sucks besides Miller who will not play

That's awful. Now, mix in Haley's questionable play-calling and his offensive scheme which takes away Roethlisberger's best attributes and see what you get. Lastly, Art Rooney II needs to shut the hell up. Leave the football moves to the general manager and coach. The last thing the Steelers need is their version of Jerry Jones. This whole mess with Haley is mostly his fault. The team went to two Super Bowls with Arians calling the plays and Roethlisberger's stats were very good under Arians. Just saying. 

I see something in the Steeler's future, it's 8-8 PART TWO! 

Follow me on Twitter @MadChad412