Pittsburgh Steelers: 3 Reasons Black and Gold will rebound in 2019
By Samuel Teets
The Pittsburgh Steelers came up short last year after falling apart three quarters of the way through the season. That won’t happen in 2019.
The Pittsburgh Steelers aren’t my pick to win the Super Bowl in the 2019 NFL season, but that doesn’t mean the team won’t have a successful 2019 campaign. Despite the drama, speculation and subtractions the team has dealt with recently, the Steelers still have plenty of talented players. I’m looking forward to the team surprising critics this season.
Listening to the media, it’s easy to get swept away by the litany of issues the Steelers have had over the past year. However, there are several reasons why fans should believe in the team this year.
The following three reasons sum up why the black and gold will rise again this season.
3. Things are finally back to normal
The drama that unfolded both inside and outside of the Steelers locker room last season is well documented. Everything seemed to go wrong. First, Le’Veon Bell decided to sit out for the entire season and his teammates raided his locker. It wasn’t a good look for the team and it set them back. No one loses one of the four best running backs in the game and continues in stride.
That was how things kicked off before the season even started and it ended just as badly. Antonio Brown was unhappy, and he ghosted on the Steelers near the final week of the season. He missed practice and the team held him out of the Week 17 matchup against the Cincinnati Bengals. Brown went on to demand a trade and burn bridges with the Steelers in the most public fashion possible. He even went back and forth with JuJu Smith-Schuster on Twitter.
Bell sitting out last season was difficult for the Steelers, especially when James Conner was injured. Now, Bell is on the New York Jets. Brown was traded to the Oakland Raiders. And Pittsburgh is prepared to move beyond the two former stars. Conner and Smith-Schuster will replace them on the field and veterans like Cameron Heyward and Maurkice Pouncey will stabilize the locker room. It’s finally time to move on from the soap opera and play football.