Aaron Rodgers is Not a God

The New York Jets were in a 12-season playoff drought, the longest in the NFL.

This type of struggle was not new to Jets fans. They went the entire 1970’s without a winning season and the 90’s were mostly a waste, too.

In what were halcyon days for New York fans, from 2000-2010, the Jets recorded eight winning seasons and six playoff wins, including back-to-back AFC Championship appearances in 2009 and 2010.

Since then, it’s been a lot of losing on Sundays. After this recent Thursday’s loss to Cleveland, 135 of them.

This past spring after yet another failed campaign, the Jets decided to go all-in at the poker table. Desperation pushes people to do unwise things and the Jets, well, let’s get started, shall we?

Enter the Lord and Savior

Despite all the losing, the Jets had actually built a competitive team. General manager Joe Douglas has been one of the league’s best personnel managers over the last few seasons and has especially demonstrated success in the draft.

It would not be hyperbole to say the 2022 Jets draft may go down as one of their best ever. Cincinnati corner Ahmad “Sauce” Gardner and Ohio State receiver Garrett Wilson won Defensive Rookie of the Year and Offensive Rookie of the Year, respectively. Douglas also drafted pass rusher Jermaine Johnson later in the first round and running back Breece Hall in the second, who had his own case for OROY before a season-ending injury. Those moves in particular made Douglas a finalist for Executive of the Year.

Robert Saleh is the best Jets coach since Rex Ryan’s heyday in 2010 and the defense in particular last season took massive strides.

The Jets seemingly had one weakness: quarterback.

As has been the case since Chad Pennington (yes, that’s the best they’ve had in the last 40 years), the Jets have been a conveyor belt of trash cans at the sport’s most important position. They spent a second overall selection on Zach Wilson and Wilson has been one of if not the worst passer in the sport since he entered the league. There’s been no improvement (sometimes it feels he’s getting worse) and there’s been consistent immaturity issues and a lack of accountability. The Jets needed an upgrade.

So they traded for Aaron Rodgers.

Rodgers, the future Hall of Famer, had grown tired of his time in Green Bay. After the Packers decided to draft Jordan Love in the first round and consider a future without Rodgers, Rodgers won back-to-back MVP awards, making the Packers look foolish. Aaron, who has never felt he’s been given the respect he deserves, threatened retirement multiple times, essentially blackmailing Green Bay into giving him a check with whatever number he wanted on it.

He got that deal, a three-year worth over $150 million ($101 guaranteed) and it made him the highest-paid player annually in North American sports history at the time.

His first season after signing went poorly. He finished with 12 interceptions last year, a normal number for a normal quarterback but eye-raising for Rodgers, who had finished a season with 10+ picks only twice in his storied 15-season career as a starter.

After spending a season skirting coronavirus protocols over an obscure stance against “Big Pharma” in 2021 and then a season where Rodgers regularly complained about the Packers young skill position players in 2022, Rodgers and Green Bay were sick of each other.

After a drug-induced wilderness retreat gave Rodgers whatever spiritual journey he needed to go through, Rodgers was moved to the Jets in April. If only the Jets had known what they were signing up for.

Aaron Rodgers, The Dictator

When a team, a person or a business is desperate, really at the end of their rope, they often look for a savior to bail them out.

The Jets decided Rodgers was that guy and immediately gave him control of the team, from says in personnel to coaching hires.

Nathaniel Hackett hadn’t made it through a full season in Denver and had pretty thoroughly demonstrated he was overwhelmed as an offensive coordinator in today’s game but Rodgers and Hackett were old friends. Hackett was signed.

Rodgers got the Jets to sign former teammate Allen Lazard to a four-year, $44 million contract.

Randall Cobb hadn’t played meaningful football in three years, even when Rodgers talked Green Bay into giving Cobb a second stint in Wisconsin. Still, Cobb was brought in.

Tim Boyle, who has done nothing to warrant a position on an NFL roster, was one of Rodgers’ friends. He was hired.

When Dalvin Cook became available, Rodgers said he wanted him. The Jets offensive line had been a sandcastle, falling over often at the first sign of pressure and after all, New York had just drafted Hall.

Rodgers didn’t care. The Jets spent $7 million on Cook.

The Circus Begins

On the fourth snap of the season, Rodgers tore his Achilles and it was partly his own fault.

The play called into Rodgers was for left tackle Duane Brown to dive low on the defender in front of him, opening a passing lane to the left.

Brown did as he was supposed to and Rodgers just decided not to throw it. This after a similar play had been called on one of the three previous plays and Rodgers also decided not to throw it.

Instead, Rodgers tried to roll out, his ankle got caught in the Meadowland turf and like that, his season was over.

For reasons that were unclear at the time, Douglas and the Jets refused to bring in a new quarterback in the weeks following. Rodgers was done for the year, there was no doubt of that. Zach Wilson had already more than demonstrated he wasn’t an NFL starter and yet the Jets continued to sit on their hands. They never had a backup plan for a Rodgers injury and now that one had happened, seemed fully disinterested in crafting one.

As the losses continued to pile up, something extremely bizarre occurred.

I’ll Be Back

Rodgers said he intended to return to play by December.

This was scientifically impossible. It had never been done before and certainly not by a 39-year-old quarterback but Rodgers, who has made railing against modern medicine his new favorite hobby, said he knew “alternative methods” to accelerate his recovery and actively welcomed pushback from anyone who doubted him.

Each week, the world got an unwanted update on Rodgers’ continual progress in his race to beat evolution itself because Rodgers sees himself as above everyone else. He’s a raging narcissist who’s quick to point the finger at himself when it comes to aplomb but quicker still to point it at others when things start going in a poor direction.

This is not a recently crafted narrative. It’s been lightly whispered in NFL circles for years but Green Bay, a small town in the Midwest, dampened a lot of that noise. There is no dampener in New York. Everything said is heard and the media is always on top of everything there.

Come the start of December, Rodgers was “cleared for practice” but still ineligible to play and the best media voices laid into him. Fox Sports’ Colin Cowherd said Rodgers had labeled himself an oracle, a guru, a mind beyond us mere mortals, a guy who believes he always has the answers. In another segment, Cowherd compared him to a snake oil salesman and days later was vindicated when Rodgers had to walk back his never-rooted-in-reality guarantees, saying a return to play after 14 weeks just wasn’t reasonable.

He made this acceptance of reality days after the Jets were eliminated from the playoffs. Coincidence, I’m sure.

Where’s the Mute Button?

You’d think that would be the end of this story but just as I finish this and go to hit publish, there’s yet another update. Rodgers has become the self-written tabloid of the NFL. He will not shut up.

Rodgers, specifically since he became a regular on the Pat McAfee show, has become more and more unhinged and not quietly. At first, the McAfee appearances were refreshing, giving you an inside look at how one of the sport’s greatest players ever conducts himself on a week-to-week basis in terms of game prep and recovery and the way he analyzes games after the fact.

That useful, informative experience was ditched within a matter of months for a weekly seminar about why the Covid-19 vaccine is actually just another way “Big Pharma” is trying to control the population, that the vaccine isn’t any more effective than “alternative” methods. This was weird to begin with and as Rodgers continued to hammer down on it, it became more and more unsettling.

For some reason, Rodgers thinks people are making personal health decisions, this particular one being the difference between life and death for some people, based on what Rodgers, a professional NFL quarterback with exactly zero formal education in epidemiology, thinks.

In the grand scheme of things, what Rodgers thinks about the coronavirus vaccine isn’t important, not until it becomes a problem in his job but it has more than reached that point. Rodgers’ personal vendetta against modern medicine has cost the Jets their season. There’s no question the Jets bought into the false promises. The only other possibility is Douglas suddenly became one of the worst talent evaluators in the NFL overnight. Seems less likely than Rodgers still holds ultimate authority in the New York organization.

Rodgers in not just his career but his life believes he knows best at all times, the smartest man in the room on any topic. Anyone who disagrees with him simply can’t comprehend his intelligence.

Rodgers has been ruled out for the season with the Achilles tear, something that should have happened a day after initial tests months ago but whatever. Still, Rodgers had to make himself the focal point of the organization yet again. At this point, the football the Jets play every week isn’t even important. I don’t even know if Jets fans are watching anymore. Somehow, the biggest part of the 2023 New York Jets season is someone who’s not playing in it.

Rodgers was put on the active roster despite being physically unable to play professional football. Fullback Nick Bawden, a professional football player who is physically able to play professional football, had to be waived to make a roster spot for Rodgers, again, a guy who is out for the season. The New York Jets are the only team with a 52-man roster.

Bawden was a veteran who thankfully has a guaranteed salary but multiple analysts and Rodgers truthers didn’t seem to understand the value of an NFL roster spot. His salary is nowhere near as valuable as a spot on an NFL team.

The Jets added Bawden to the practice squad after the fact which means a player on the practice squad, Kalon Barnes, is now out of the league entirely to assuage Rodgers’ massive ego.

Rodgers, after a lot of negative feedback from the media, said it wasn’t his idea and Saleh backed him, saying it was an organizational decision. True or not, it’s a terrible look for Rodgers. If it was Rodgers’ choice, it demonstrates how he sees himself compared to his teammates: far above them. He cannot help them right now and has been nothing but a loud, nagging distraction all season. If it was the Jets’ prerogative, it showcases the lengths they’re currently willing to go to make Rodgers feel comfortable.

The Jets have become a teenage girl, a franchise with no standards or self-control, only complete allegiance to their perceived savior. They’re terrified of what their life might look like without their toxic boyfriend and so they’ll come up with endless excuses for his narcissistic behavior. The elements of their life that were going well, like the 2022 draft class and that defense, which is widely-considered a top-five unit by most football minds, have been pushed aside for the almighty Rodgers. This seems like a relationship that will go on for as long as Rodgers wants it to. The Jets were beyond desperate and it caused them to hitch their wagon to the Wizard of Oz.

Rodgers the GM

When a player’s confidence grows too large, he begins to think he should have say in roster decisions.

No player should. Players play, coaches coach, managers manage. It is a team sport run by multiple people. Micromanaging, as I thoroughly discussed during the David Tepper write-up, breeds a lack of trust and false confidences in failed processes.

Every decision Rodgers made this offseason has been a five-bell alarm.

With Hackett coordinating the offense, the Jets have the second-worst total offense in football. They’re bottom-five in passing, rushing, scoring and dead last in red zone percentage and third-down percentage.

Allen Lazard has 23 catches in 14 games and at one point was a healthy scratch, an $11 million player the Jets told not to bother coming to work.

Cobb has four catches in eight games. Four.

Zach Wilson was so bad, Saleh benched him to give Boyle a shot. Boyle started two games, throwing 360 yards combined on 4.7 yards per attempt. He had one touchdown, four picks and a passer rating of 56. The Jets released Boyle after losing both games.

Cook, who had 249+ carries in four straight seasons for the Vikings, regularly putting up one of the league’s best yards-per-carry, has 67 carries for 214 yards, a 3.2 clip. He’s gotten zero touches the last two games, a $7 million player glued to the bench.

The 2022 Jets thought they were a quarterback away when they were actually an offensive line, offensive coordinator and quarterback away. In 2023, they ended up improving none of those things and have gotten significantly worse and a year older.

One would hope the Jets will have received a wake-up call after this failed campaign but their lord and savior is immunized against reality checks.

He’s Still Talking

The day after Christmas:

“They’re still mad I’m covid MVP. Not just the two MVP’s that I won but also: I didn’t bow down to the Medical Industrial Complex and the Mass Formation Psychosis and I decided to make a decision that was in the best interest of my health. They’re still trying to get their jabs in. Have another jab while you’re at it.”

Rodgers, in yet another attempt to avoid responsibility, said any criticisms of his behavior are by vaccinated puppets mad about his immunization status. He’s still talking about stuff two years ago, like a dude who just cannot get over a failed relationship.

He said he’d make the field for game-ready practice at the start of December. It didn’t happen but Rodgers in that same McAfee interview said he accomplished what he set out to do despite his promises and proclamations being cemented on the internet. His current recovery timetable is exactly what doctors said it would be after the injury: ready for spring training.

Whatever pronounced statements Rodgers makes, he often quickly walks them back as a joke and a turn of phrase. When called out on his dishonesty, he asks why the spotlight is on him when he constantly begs for attention like a dog who’s never got a good pat. He’s a troubled man who both complains about a lack of respect and recognition while whining when that attention is on him seemingly 24 hours a day, affording the world a window into how much peddling this self-described maestro does.

Like many athletes and public figures before him, Rodgers’ self-obsession has prevented him from fulfilling his max potential. He has become the James Harden/Kyrie Irving of football, fully and solely focused on his own aspirations at the expense of those around him, thereby stalling him from ever achieving the immortal status he believes he deserves, like Icarus lighting his own wings on fire and shrieking about it.

Rodgers needs a serious intervention but his personality and state of mind make him incommunicable. This is not someone who can be reasoned with or hear the word “no”.

Now at 40 coming off an Achilles tear, it seems likely we get more headlines out of Rodgers than noteworthy performances on a football field. Perhaps this is what Rodgers meant when he talked about being 90% retired. He conducts himself like a red pill podcast host more than a professional quarterback.

The Jets felt they had a kid in the quarterback room. They tried trading for an adult.

They ended up with an older kid.

The Football World Learned Nothing From Tom Brady

Tom Brady played professional football for 23 years and during that time, Brady accomplished a lot of things. There are the historic marks, which seem more and more ridiculous the longer you read them, from setting the completion record at 45 to the 7-3 Super Bowl stat.

After each season of seemingly impossible production, I couldn’t help but remember Brady was a sixth-round pick, that people with decades of football experience looked at his college tape and thought this guy was likely out of the league in four years.

I think it’s mostly a culture issue. There is a stigma in NFL circles, and certainly amongst the media and fan base, that size and pure athleticism are more valuable than football IQ/skills.

Running a 40-yard dash is important but your three-cone and shuttle scores, how fast a player can change direction and accelerate, is a far more valuable skill set than pure speed but that hasn’t stopped teams, year after year, from drafting track stars rather than football players (John Ross, Darrius Heyward-Bey, to name two of many).

NFL executives have also demonstrated size is far more important to them than the execution of body mechanics and again, actual football skill. Jason Kelce had the fastest 40 of any offensive lineman in his draft class, mobility that linemen don’t typically have but was considered undersized at 6’3”, 280. Kelce is currently in his 13th season, amassing five first-time All-Pros after being drafted in the sixth round.

The NFL, every season during every spring of my life, demonstrates how their own biases and beliefs of what a good football player should be are often more important than what a good football player actually is.

The NFL Combine, where physical tests such as the dash or bench press are taken, is mostly meaningless. It only calculates athleticism. There have been some phenomenal athletes over the last 20 years enter the NFL. Many have flamed out because playing football, just like any other sport, requires more than physical build.

Tom Brady demonstrated that at the sport’s most important position and after all that unparalleled success, one would think the league, the media and the fans would have learned a valuable lesson: size and a superhero-like athletic profile are not required to succeed in this league.

But people are very stubborn, very reluctant to admit mistakes or failed processes and football people are at the very top of that list.

Enter Brock Purdy

Last season, the 49ers’ Trey Lance, the same athletic profile the NFL has glorified my whole life, was struggling. Lance, who had played just one college football season at North Dakota State, had showcased everything the NFL loves about quarterbacks: 6’4” size, a cannon arm and versatility that afforded him an 1100-yard rushing season to pair with 28 passing scores.

Though only one season of college tape was out there, the 49ers traded a bank vault for the right to select Lance, trading three first-round picks in consecutive drafts and a third.

Kyle Shanahan, if not the league’s best coach, the sport’s best play designer, would bring this athletic freak to his ultimate potential.

Lance started four games and was apparently so bad for San Francisco in practice, the 49ers traded him to Dallas this past offseason for a fourth-round pick.

If you’re not a football fan, you may be wondering, “Who is the San Francisco quarterback now?”

His name is Brock Purdy, the very last pick of the 2022 draft, the spot in the selection process nicknamed, “Mr. Irrelevant.”

After Lance suffered an ankle injury in his second game of 2022, the 9ers trotted out Jimmy Garoppolo, who had steered them to success in years past before he also suffered a season-ending injury.

Down to what the NFL world believed was the scraps at the back of the cupboard, Purdy started five games, completing 67% of his passes, nearly 1400 yards, 13 touchdowns to four interceptions and a passer rating of 107 while winning all five. Purdy was so good, there was legitimate MVP buzz around his performance.

This was foolish (you can’t win MVP playing five games) but there was nonetheless applause for his play and deservedly so. He would lead the San Fran to two playoff wins before suffering a UCL tear in the NFC Championship.

The Purdy Party

Now nearing the end of the 2023 season, Purdy should be a near unquestioned frontrunner for the Most Valuable Player award. Through 15 games, he’s completing nearly 69% of his passes. He has 4,050 yards, 29 touchdowns, a passer rating of 112 and a yards-per-attempted pass of 9.7, not only the league’s best but the best in the last 20 years.

His advanced metrics are phenomenal. There is no area of the field he does not excel. Deep ball completion percentage, pressured completion percentage, expected points added, touchdown percentage, expected points added per dropback on throws of 10+ air yards. Name the stat, he’s good at it.

And you’ll never guess how the football world and media pundits have responded.

DEFCON 1

All summer, the Purdy analysis was to be expected. “We’ve seen seven full games.”

An absolutely fair and respectable position to take but as Purdy and the Niners kept winning, more and more excuses seemed to come out of the media and fans.

“It’s Shanahan’s scheme, it’s the talent around him, it’s the defense, it’s the schedule.”

Now 15 weeks in, those criticisms have been silenced. Purdy excels at every efficiency metric. He has been the best quarterback in football in 2023, period, no ifs ands or buts about it but the NFL world, as well as a significant portion of the media base, is losing their minds over Purdy’s production and not in a good way.

Purdy is not the Incredible Hulk. No one will ever confuse him for 6’5” Josh Allen. He doesn’t have the speed of Lamar Jackson and he doesn’t have Patrick Mahomes’ arm.

And the media legitimately hate him for it.

Nick Wright, who I believe might be the best sports talk analyst in the world, has come up with every and any excuse for why Purdy can’t win MVP, from All-Pro running back Christian McCaffery is the best player (debatable) to Purdy plays worse from behind (nearly every quarterback in the history of the sport has played worse from behind) to Purdy can’t win without his weapons (quarterbacks tend to play worse without their best players, yeah) to it’s Shanahan (Wright has given up on this stance).

One month ago, pundits said Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts should lead the MVP conversation despite having a significantly worse season than last year. The Eagles lost three straight games and after beating the Giants, led by Tommy DeVito and Tyrod Taylor, by one score, dead silence on Hurts winning MVP.

Two weeks ago, Dak Prescott was on pace to win MVP, according to Wright. The Cowboys got literally run over by the Bills and then lost in Miami, demonstrating again and again Dallas can’t win on the road. Dak’s magically disappeared from the conversation.

This week, Lamar Jackson now leads the MVP race after beating Purdy’s 9ers. Halfway through the season, Jackson was not sniffing an MVP vote but suddenly, MVP favorite Lamar Jackson after Purdy had the worst game of his career.

Before the Ravens debacle (Purdy threw four interceptions), Purdy’s passer rating was 119, three points shy of the league record.

Jackson, meanwhile, has 24 total touchdowns in 15 games this season and has thrown for under 200 yards six times.

Lamar’s stats this season:

97.2 passer rating, 66.3 completion %, 3357 passing yards, 19 passing TDs

The last seven MVP winners (passer rating, completion %, passing yards, passing TDs):

‘22 Mahomes 105.2, 67.1%, 5250, 41

’21 Rodgers 111.9, 68.9%, 4115, 37

’20 Rodgers 121.5, 70.7%, 4299, 48

‘19 Jackson 113.3, 66.1%, 3127, 36,

’18 Mahomes 113.8, 66%, 5097, 50

’17 Brady 102.8, 66.3%, 4577, 32

’16 Ryan 117.1, 69.9%, 4944, 38

Based on those numbers, we’re looking for a quarterback with a passer rating over 100, probably over 110, a completion percentage of at least 66, 4000 yards and 35-ish touchdowns.

Purdy’s stats: 112.2 PR, 68.8%, 4,050, 29 in 15 games.

Anyone but Purdy

There is no logical argument to choose a quarterback over Brock Purdy but some analysts, including Wright, have started saying the award needs “saved” from Purdy.

Because Purdy isn’t flashy, he’s not going to do anything physically you haven’t seen before and it really feels like that’s become people’s reason to watch.

There’s even been some discussion about Josh Allen for MVP, the same Josh Allen who committed four turnovers to lose a game practically single-handedly to the Zach Wilson-led New York Jets to start the season. Allen once again is near the top of the league in turnovers and the Bills have a legitimate chance at missing the playoffs. No player in the last 20 years has won MVP missing the playoffs.

Why Are We Here?

Tom Brady for years showed us efficiency and things you cannot see in a gym, like pocket presence, read progression, anticipation and poise are what lead to good quarterback play but teams, media and fans have demonstrated they’d rather have an athletic freak like Josh Allen at quarterback, a player who multiple times a season plays with such abandon and recklessness he loses football games by himself.

The NFL world will not put down the Josh Allen Kool-Aid. He can lose a game about as single-handedly as you can on national television to start a season and four months later find himself an MVP candidate, like losses to Zach Wilson, Mac Jones and Russell Wilson didn’t happen.

Patrick Mahomes has a rocket arm but he’s a great quarterback because he does the mental things well, because he learned how to play quarterback. It seems a lot of the football people haven’t realized this as they make Titanic trades for athletic specimens like Lance or spend top-five picks on passers like Zach Wilson.

At some point, NFL franchises need to decide what business they’re in: are they there to be entertained or are they there to win?

Herm Edwards once famously said, “You play to win the game.”

Apparently not. Sure, Purdy is better at throwing the ball anywhere on the field this season than anyone, including Mahomes. Sure, he’s setting levels of performance that haven’t been matched in this era. Sure, he’s stomped on every half-hearted argument but he’s just not “fun”.

Brady showed us how to win. The Patriots during his tenure were rarely the most athletically gifted. Brady’s receivers outside of Wes Welker, Randy Moss and maybe Julian Edelman won’t be remembered in 50 years but they always had the smartest, most detail-oriented and disciplined team. Brady demanded it and that’s why year after year, the Patriots were contenders and year after year, they beat more “talented” teams.

Yet if a quarterback with Brady’s same physical “flaws” came out of the draft tomorrow (or two years ago like Purdy), the NFL has demonstrated they’d skip over him multiple times.

The NFL, somehow, learned nothing from Brady.

If Purdy doesn’t win MVP, it should go to McCaffery or Dolphins receiver Tyreek Hill. If it goes to anyone else, it’s an insult to eyes and memory retention but perhaps most of all, it will be a damning statement on how myopic football people are.

Matt Canada is Finally Gone. It Doesn’t Matter.

On November 21, 2023, the Pittsburgh Steelers finally fired Matt Canada, the worst offensive coordinator in the history of the franchise’s modern era. It was a tumor that needed removed since its introduction to the franchise.

From the beginning, it was abundantly clear Canada was unqualified for the position. It was hard to imagine he could do worse than his predecessor, Randy Fichtner, a quarterbacks coach with no play-calling experience who nosedived the offense. The black and gold’s long-time identity of running the ball was scrapped for a pass happy unit that outright refused to carry the rock, finishing in the bottom five in rushing all three years of his tenure. When Fichtner’s contract conveniently expired after a 48-37 embarrassment in a home playoff game against Cleveland, Canada was instantly promoted, a coaching approach the Steelers have entertained for far too long.

Canada had no play-calling experience at the NFL level either and even though Fichtner’s tour solidified him as the worst offensive coordinator in the Steelers modern era, Pittsburgh decided repeating the same failed talent evaluation was a good process. Canada would spend 44 games with the organization and fail to produce a 400-yard game of offense in any of them, creating one of the longest droughts in NFL history. Canada had a terrifying fear of attacking the middle of the field, a fear easily recognized in the quarterback heat maps released after each game.

Quarterback heat maps are meant to show which areas of the field are targeted highly compared to others and in the middle of the field, week after week? Ice cold blue. Rather than force the defense to defend every blade of grass, Canada willingly took 20 yards of it off the table, free of charge.

Canada stubbornly refused to adjust to the modern NFL, continuing to roll out elementary to ancient route concepts that resulted in multiple defenders on opposing teams saying they knew what to expect.

The offense rarely managed 20 points, an alarmingly low bar for an NFL offense and was an extraordinaire at three-and-outs and not scoring in the first quarter but finally, after nearly three full years of historically bad production, Canada was fired.

The termination date was noteworthy. It was a Tuesday.

Very, very rarely would a coach be fired on a Tuesday. Coaches are fired on Mondays so as to give new employees as much time to prepare for the next contest as possible, leaving many to believe Tomlin wasn’t the one who pulled the trigger. Owner Art Rooney II did.

Tomlin for six years has employed yes men as underlings, coaches with little to no innovative ideas so as to not surpass or overtake his authority. His reluctance to hold anyone accountable for poor results has become a calling card of the once quality coach. All searches for new coaching candidates almost always suspiciously end with promoting someone in-house and their incompetence in said roles then becomes a continual frustration of Tomlin’s in post-game pressers when questioned about the on-field product’s lack of execution and cohesion.

For Tomlin’s boss to step in and do what should have been done years ago suggests Tomlin may finally be losing his grip on power, a welcome taste of happiness for a thirsting fan base.

If there was any expectation Canada’s termination would be the final solution to the wasteland of failing Steelers football, the answer was quickly determined but not before an oasis appeared.

False Hope

In the team’s first game without Canada at the helm, Pittsburgh accumulated over 400 yards of offense against a Burrow-less Cincinnati, ending a 58-game quagmire. It was the first time in the 2023 season the Steelers managed more yards and plays than their opponent. Pittsburgh did not have a three-and-out, quarterback Kenny Pickett had a season-high in passing yards and tight end Pat Freiermuth had career highs in receptions (9) and yardage (120).

The Steelers run game had picked up steam in its last several games and Najee Harris had one of his best games as a pro, finishing a peg under 100 yards but despite it all, the Steelers still only managed 16 points in yet another narrow win, a 16-10 win against backup quarterback Jake Browning.

Here’s a truth many in the fan base and media won’t want to hear: Matt Canada the person is gone but the philosophy and more specifically, his playbook, is still there.

Playbooks are installed during training camp and come the middle of the season, fully revamping an offense simply isn’t possible, not even for a great coordinator. You can introduce new concepts, sure but the majority of the game script will be the same. You can run the ball more, try targeting certain areas of the field (the heat map for the Bengals game was lukewarm in the middle) but the majority of the failed schematics remain.

This is why offseason changes to not just roster but coaching are so extremely important. If Rooney and Tomlin did not have full confidence in Canada (his results suggested there should be no confidence at all), he needed terminated after the 2022 season and a new OC and scheme introduced. Alas, making changes to anything in Pittsburgh is greatly frowned upon, even if it will objectively improve things. Pittsburgh is the deranged man holding onto a buoy in a hurricane, convinced the storm will pass rather than climb the ladder dropped down by the Coast Guard.

Quarterbacks coach Mike Sullivan and running backs coach Eddie Faulkner are not revolutionary gridiron artists. They, and you may be shocked to hear this, have little to no play-calling experience. They are only able to make minor tweaks to a totaled vehicle. The vehicle will remain totaled.

One week later…

The Answer

Following what felt like a promising and cautiously hopeful performance, the Arizona Cardinals came to Acrisure Stadium. Star quarterback Kyler Murray had missed most of the season recovering from an ACL tear and between that and a rebuilding roster, Arizona arrived with a 2-10 record.

Pittsburgh, hot in the playoff race at 7-4, had a prime opportunity at hand, especially after losing to rookie Donovan Thompson-Robinson and the Browns two weeks prior in what felt like a missed win.

Pittsburgh would lose 24-10 at home. Pickett would fall injured yet again and Pittsburgh would be blown out, their third loss of 14+ points this season.

Since the end of the 2020 season, Pittsburgh has lost by 14+ nine times.

They’ve lost by double digits 12 times in 47 games, more than a quarter of their contests.

That feels like a lot but the second set of data is far more alarming.

Since the end of the 2020 season, Pittsburgh has won a game by 14+ once and by double-digits only three times.

The range of outcomes for a Pittsburgh Steelers game? Win by one possession, lose by one possession or get utterly decimated.

They rarely decisively beat anyone and because of that, every game, including ones against supposed inferior opponents, is losable.

So when the New England Patriots, another 2-10 football team, came into Acrisure Stadium this Thursday, just four days after the Cardinals disaster, something should have been abundantly clear: this would not be a Steelers blowout.

It didn’t matter that New England had scored 13 points in three games, one lonely touchdown. Mike Tomlin teams keep other teams in the contest, seemingly at all costs.

There’s a national narrative that Tomlin’s teams are always competitive when in reality Tomlin makes games competitive that shouldn’t be for the opposition.

In a game that had an over-under of 30, few points were expected to be scored. Pittsburgh, fresh after multiple players said the team overlooked Arizona, showed they did not learn their lesson.

New England scored a touchdown on their first drive. Pittsburgh would respond with a field goal from the ever-reliable Chris Boswell, sadly one of the best players on the team, before an exchange of punts between the two inept attacks.

Backup quarter Mitch Trubisky would throw an interception under pressure into triple coverage, providing the Patriots with a short field. New England’s backup quarterback Bailey Zappe would zing one over the middle to tight end Hunter Henry, a position the black and gold has struggled to defend since seemingly the beginning of the sport and the Patriots would find themselves once again comfortably leading in Pittsburgh for what felt like the billionth time of the century. Different year, same story.

Two consecutive three-and-outs from the black and gold, returning to their favorite pastimes, would enable a Zappe dart down the left sideline over the outstretched hand of safety Damontae Kazee to Henry yet again and a dominant 21-3 New England lead.

A Steelers touchdown late in the second quarter would squeeze the deficit to 11. On the second Patriots possession of the second half, Zappe would make a costly mistake, throwing an interception that, if not for running back Ezekiel Elliott’s hustle back, would have resulted in a pick-six for the Steelers.

On 3rd-and-9, Trubisky would scramble and slide well short of the line to gain in a play where a first down was possible if he was willing to take a hit.

Plays like this, where success is possible and a player in this case literally chooses not to, are maddeningly frustrating to watch for any football fan.

The following 4th-and-2 resulted in a flustered Trubisky dishing it to running back Jaylen Warren, who was unable to make the line to gain. Turnover on downs.

Pittsburgh would get another chance after a blocked punt and a questionable defensive pass interference call in the end zone put the ball on the Patriots goal line, where the Steelers would net a touchdown and two-point conversion but the offense would need to broach the dreaded 20-point threshold to overcome the Patriots 21.

New England, who would fail to register six plays on any of their six second half drives, were almost daring Pittsburgh to win but the Canada playbook does not allow for 20 offensive points.

The last gasp of hope was on a 4th-and-2, after Trubisky misfired twice on 10-yard passes. Rather than attempt a first down conversion, Trubisky chucked a 40-yard prayer for a flag to Diontae Johnson. Incomplete, game over. When you can’t throw accurately 10 yards, try 40.

When questioned about it after the game, Tomlin said that “Ref, please help us” was the designed play call.

The Steelers Curse Continues

In yet another installment of this series (this is now the third chapter, chapters 1 and 2 linked), it is revealed Matt Canada was but a tumor of the larger cancer.

Like Fichtner before him, Canada was but a causation of the infestation of Mike Tomlin. With no playoff wins since 2016, this 2023 season will be seven years without a playoff win, the longest drought in Steelers history in the Super Bowl era.

His last five days got Tomlin another record: the first team to be over .500 and lose back-to-back games to teams at least eight games under .500.

Both of these games were at home.

With the Tomlin tenure now reaching a new low, one would think this would be the breaking point, that surely this is the last year of the neverending mediocrity of non-losing season Mike Tomlin but I’m sure the national media today will discuss the grit and resolve Tomlin demonstrated in getting his team within reach of overcoming an 18-point home deficit to the worst offense in professional football.

Yes, competitive indeed.