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The Pittsburgh Steelers are balancing a roster of old with the franchise taking on a new direction. The team is loaded with veteran superstars who, while past their primes, can still play at a high level. After contemplating retirement, Aaron Rodgers re-signed for one more season. The all-time great quarterback will return to a team that features Jalen Ramsey, Cameron Heyward, and T.J. Watt. The former two have had great careers that are also nearing an end, and Watt is a former Defensive Player of the Year winner who still has plenty left in the tank, but is also coming off the worst season of his career since he was a rookie.
This aging lineup has a new coach leading the way, too. After 19 seasons at the helm, the Steelers moved on from Mike Tomlin, replacing him with Mike McCarthy, the coach who Rodgers found loads of success with during their time together on the Green Bay Packers. Albert Breer thinks that McCarthy is up for the tough task of establishing his own program while still maximizing the veteran talent on the roster.
“There’s a real balance that homecoming Steelers coach Mike McCarthy will have to strike between managing an older roster and establishing his program,” Breer wrote on SI.com. “Generally, Year 1 isn’t when you take the foot off the gas. The good news is McCarthy has always been willing to change and adapt to the conditions around him, and he’s had veteran teams in the past, which tells me he’ll have a good game plan for having Aaron Rodgers, T.J. Watt, Jalen Ramsey, Cam Heyward, and the rest of the franchise’s elder statesmen both rested and ready for Week 1. Making sure that doesn’t affect the rest of the team will be the tricky part.”
McCarthy has been a head coach for every season but two since 2006. The Super Bowl XLV coach seems well-equipped to get the most out of a Steelers team that, while always competitive, has been too mediocre in recent years.
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