The Pittsburgh Steelers have started the season 0-3 12 times including this season. In those previous 11 seasons, the Steelers did not make the playoffs. No one is saying the season is over less than a month in but it is time to shake things up if head coach Mike Tomlin wants to save his streak of non-losing seasons. Here are four things I’d do this week to shake things up.
Sign a tight end, maybe two
No one thinks the Steelers are going to find the next George Kittle on some team’s practice squad or in free agency. But they must do their due diligence to get some depth behind Vance McDonald. Xavier Grimble can’t be counted on and Zach Gentry can’t even get a helmet on gameday.
Open up the inside linebacker competition
There needs to be legitimate competition for who is going to play inside linebacker. Mark Barron looks lost out there. Maybe if Vince Williams can come back it’ll be him and Devin Bush. Or maybe the Steelers need to see what they have in Ulysees Gilbert III who is easily the athletic equal of Barron.
Name Jaylen Samuels the starting running back
We all love James Conner and his story to the NFL has all the makings of an ESPN documentary. But for all the struggles of the offensive line, he’s doing himself no favors. Meanwhile the Steelers’ coaches didn’t even bother to play Jaylen Samuels against the 49ers. This is criminal given his natural talent and ability to make plays even when the line isn’t at its best.
Move Zach Banner and Chuks Okorafor to starting tackles during practice
Matt Feiler and Alejandro Villanueva continue to struggle, especially with speed pass rusher. Honestly we’d like to see Feiler get benched in favor of Banner or Okorafor just to see what they have. But either way I’d give both guys more reps if for no other reason to light a fire under the regular starter.
