PITTSBURGH _ You can't say the drama has passed.
You can never say that about this high-maintenance Steelers offense. Not when you have a quarterback who threatened retirement, a running back who might not show for camp, one wide receiver coming off a year-long suspension, another prone to pouting and a third who seemingly broke 13 fingers last season and suddenly couldn't catch a football (yet was targeted on third-and-long in the AFC championship).
So let's just say the drama coaster has slowed.
Le'Veon Bell's situation is settled. He will sign that franchise tag sooner or later. Alejandro Villanueva will work out his contract dilemma. Then, assuming there are no injuries, suspensions or retirements over the next month and a half, there is a very good chance we will see the most talented offense in Steelers history take the field for the season opener Sept. 10 in Cleveland.
It will also be the most expensive offense in Steelers history. The site overthecap.com lists it (once Bell hops aboard) as the only $100 million offense in the NFL. The site spotrac.com has it pegged at slightly less, but you get the point: This group is loaded in more ways than one.
No team is allocating more cap space to its offense, once you figure in the $99 million quarterback, the highest-paid running back in the league (base salary), the richest wide receiver (total contract) and an offensive line featuring two $11 million studs (David DeCastro and Maurkice Pouncey) and a fairly well-compensated right tackle (Marcus Gilbert).
I think it's perfectly reasonable to make the following requests of such a high-profile, handsomely paid outfit:
_Lead the NFL in points.
_Lead this franchise to a Super Bowl.
The defense carried this franchise for many years before requiring a rebuild that is still in progress. It remains mostly young, the main reason why only one team (New Orleans) has less money invested in that side of the ball.
It's the offense's turn. It has been for a while. Yet when you look up the Steelers' playoff point totals since the Super Bowl season of 2010, this is what you see, in reverse order beginning with last year's AFC championship: 17, 18, 30, 16, 18, 17, 23.
Not exactly lightin' it up, and even if there were reasonable excuses for some of those paltry outputs, including injuries to Bell, the time for excuses has passed. Ben Roethlisberger is the only player whose absence would be insurmountable.
The New England Patriots, you'll recall, lost Rob Gronkowski for last year's playoffs. Then they went out and averaged 34.7 points per game on their way to a championship.
Only one offense in the Steelers' long and glorious history has led the league in scoring. That was the 1979 unit, which by then had usurped a legendary defense as the team's torch bearer.
It's not like the modern-day group has faltered under coordinator Todd Haley. Just two years ago, the Steelers finished fourth in the league in scoring, the team's first top-five finish since 1995 and the second since '79. But there have been too many lulls, too many poor road games and certainly too many playoff duds. Notably that touchdown-free stinker in Kansas City.
I think of this offense the way I think of the Pirates' dream outfield in that the fantasy has far surpassed the reality so far. Wouldn't you love to see either group healthy and at the height of its powers for just one season?
Shoot, I'd almost take one game in the Steelers' case. The foursome of Roethlisberger, Bell, Antonio Brown and Martavis Bryant has shared the field for less than one half over the past two years (just before Bell was injured against the Bengals in 2015.)
In 2014, Bryant's rookie year, the fearsome foursome played together 10 times, and the Steelers averaged 31.7 points, including three explosions of 40-plus.
It's fun to imagine the possibilities. Think of the first third-and-long this season. The Steelers split out five eligible receivers. Who would be yours? I'd go with Brown, Bell, Bryant, Sammie Coates (assuming he is not in a body cast) and Eli Rogers.
Sadly, it's doubtful this offense will stay together long _ God only knows what next offseason will bring _ but is it too much to ask for one season where it remains intact?
Part of that will depend on luck. Much of it will depend on the drama kings atop the payroll getting their you-know-what together, because the saying is true: Nobody but the Steelers can stop the Steelers _ and they often do a great a job of it.
