PITTSBURGH (93.7 The Fan) – They’ll be no lowered expectations or rebuild associated with the Steelers next head coach. Steelers President Art Rooney made that very clear Wednesday at a news conference.
Rooney said he doesn’t like the word ‘rebuild’. The goal is to compete from Day 1.
At least for the last couple of coaches it’s understandable why Rooney has that opinion. He watched as Bill Cowher won 11 games in 1992 and won the division in his first season taking over for Chuck Noll. Mike Tomlin also won the division his first year and the Super Bowl his second.
Rooney laid out his ideology for the Steelers. He doesn’t buy into the ‘tank’ philosophy where you sink to get higher draft picks. The Patriots, although likely not admitting it, did that after firing Bill Belichick and it allowed them to eventually draft Drake Maye and now they are the number two seed in the AFC.
For that example of success, there are other franchises that never rebound.
“I'm not sure why you waste a year of your life not trying to contend,” Rooney said at Acrisure Stadium Wednesday. “Obviously, your roster is what it is every year. It changes every year, so you deal with what you have every year and try to put yourself in a position to compete every year.”
Related
“Sometimes you have the horses, sometimes you don't. But I think you try every year.”
It’s as if the Steelers president is saying he doesn’t want to throw out an excuse where a new coaching staff can feel like they can take a couple years to figure this out. The expectations with this franchise are to win and win immediately. Sometimes it doesn’t work out, and from a playoff standpoint it hasn’t for nearly a decade, but it doesn’t change the goal.
“It's a new coach, so there will be changes,” Rooney said. “We'll have to all get comfortable with kind of the plan.”
But it doesn’t mean that new coach comes in and is part of a rebuild, even if that might be what the team needs.