Pittsburgh Steelers: Is The Dynasty Over?

2011 was a successful yet difficult year for the Pittsburgh Steelers. They struggled with injuries all year, saw many of their veteran players having less than spectacular seasons and found themselves forced to change their defensive tactics as NFL Commisssioner Roger Goodell cited the team and it’s players multiple times for “dirty play”. Regardless, they finished 12-4 before inexplicably losing their wildcard playoff game to Tim Tebow and the Denver Broncos.

Could 2012 be the year we see the Steelers get knocked down a peg or two?

The biggest problem for this roster – there’s been alot of tread taken off these tires. Yesterday, nose tackle Chris Hoke announced his retirement. The team’s other nose tackle is Casey Hampton. The problem? Hampton turns 35 in March.

This is true for the rest of the defensive line – starting defensive ends Aaron Smith (36 in April) and Brett Keisel (34 in September) are both nearing the end of their careers as well. The Steelers have addressed this recently by drafting Cam Heyward in 2011 and Ziggy Hood in 2009 but neither one has stood out as a great player just yet.

The trend continues into the linebacking corp. You have to think that both inside linebacker James Farrior (37) and outside linebacker James Harrison (34 in May) are also aging and both had injury problems in 2011. The Steelers do have phenomenal depth at linebacker with both Lawrence Timmons and LaMarr Woodley being young elite players but for this team’s system to work it does require all the linebackers to play to a very high standard and neither Larry Foote (who himself is 32 in June) nor Jason Worilds are particularly good.

In the secondary, it’s much the same story. As great as he is, strong safety Troy Polamalu (one of my top 5 favourite players in the NFL so it pains me to say this) is 31 in April and clearly slowing down (if you doubt this, watch the Denver playoff game), free safety Ryan Clark is 32 and #1 cornerback Ike Taylor is 32 in May. Add in the fact that #2 cornerback William Gay is an unrestricted free agent this offseason who may not return and there is a bunch of serious concerns here as well.

The point here – the Pittsburgh defense is getting old. The Steelers were very fortunate that they had all of these players in the prime of their careers all at the same time which directly resulted in their Superbowl win over the Arizona Cardinals a few years back. But the price of having all your players in their prime all at once – they all get old at once too.

The bright spot for this team is that the offense as a whole is quite young.

Mike Wallace, Antonio Brown and Emmanuel Sanders are all under 25 years old and have the wily Hines Ward to learn their craft from — assuming that Ward stays with Pittsburgh which is highly likely. Rashard Mendenhall is 25 in June and has begun to show the explosiveness he displayed in college.

Then, there’s Big Ben Roethlisberger, who despite being an eight year starter, will still only be 30 when he has his birthday in March. The problem with this offense is once again injuries. Mendenhall tore his ACL late in the season, may miss the start of the 2012 season and upon his return will likely not be at 100% until 2013. Roethlisberger has had multiple injuries over the years due to his style of play and seems to be carrying a significant injury every single year.

The offensive line has been dessimated by injuries to the point when during one game in 2011 the offensive line was made up of the only five available offensive linemen on the entire roster — that means they had eight players unavailable due to injury.

Now you look at all of these factors and the question of whether or not the Steelers can keep up their dominant play is a legitimate one. Now I’ll be the first to say that I believe if any team can pull through these problems it is Pittsburgh. If you think about it though, they can’t get lucky every year. Eventually the injuries, age issues and luck will lead to this team tanking as all the great teams do.

Look at franchises like Green Bay, San Francisco, Washington, Dallas and most recently Indianapolis who have had extended periods of greatness followed by a sudden plunge into the wilderness. This is the road that appears to be in sight for Pittsburgh.

Will it be 2012 that marks the end of the latest Steeler dynasty? You wouldn’t bet against it.

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