nicmcv

Proud West Virginian, Geordie by marriage. Love most things sport, especially WVU, NUFC, and the Pittsburgh Steelers.

[nicmcv @nicmcv]

❤️

[americanair @AmericanAir]

@FreddyLA7 Not on our watch, Freddy. Check your DMs 😉

[nicmcv @nicmcv]

💙💛💙

[Armani Guzman @mani_ftn]

Special year for a special group of people ❤️
#OMAneers

[nicmcv @nicmcv]

@jflow41 Happy 26th? birthday! 💙💛

[nicmcv @nicmcv]

@CollegeFBonX #HailWV

[nicmcv @nicmcv]

@FreddyLA7 Buc-ee's!!!

[nicmcv @nicmcv]

@WVUfootball So happy this is finally happening!

[Proton VPN @ProtonVPN]

1/4
Google has known about a bug that breaks VPN apps for 7 months, leaving users exposed with no warning or error, just a VPN app that stopped working in the background.

If you're using ANY VPN on Android, you can help us by getting Google's attention to fix it.

Details 👇 🧵

[nicmcv @nicmcv]

I can't believe the @steelers have done this. Talk about living in your fears - same thing they did by accepting 'no losing seasons' as a success for years.

[Pittsburgh Steelers @steelers]

We have verbally agreed for Mike McCarthy to become our next head coach.

[nicmcv @nicmcv]

@AdamSchefter @Blitz_Burgh This proves the desire to be average in the @steelers organization was not confined to Mike Tomlin.

[nicmcv @nicmcv]

@AdamSchefter @Blitz_Burgh 🤮

[nicmcv @nicmcv]

@ThePoniExpress F

[nicmcv @nicmcv]

I can't tell you how disappointed I am in this hire. He's over 60 - does that mean Art II thinks his predecessors' methods were not good? This does not remotely help the apathy problem. NO ONE ELSE WAS INTERESTED IN HIM. @steelers

[Adam Schefter @AdamSchefter]

More about the Steelers planning to hire Mike McCarthy as their head coach:

https://t.co/jWXWdxxbpW

[Adam Schefter @AdamSchefter]

More about the Steelers planning to hire Mike McCarthy as their head coach:

https://t.co/jWXWdxxbpW

[nicmcv @nicmcv]

What an absolutely disappointing hire. They needed to do something to fix the apathy that has overcome @steelers fans. This is not it. Can Art turn the reins over, please? This is the definition of living in your fears. I would welcome a period of failure to get out of purgatory.

[Adam Schefter @AdamSchefter]

More about the Steelers planning to hire Mike McCarthy as their head coach:

https://t.co/jWXWdxxbpW

[nicmcv @nicmcv]

@NBCSportsSoccer keeps having @David_Ornstein on like he is making astounding observations. The real observation in this whole @CPFC saga is they pissed away the best manager they've had for £20m (the last straw). Sympathy for their fans - none for their ownership.

[nicmcv @nicmcv]

@FirstTake @ChrisCanty99 Should be called 'Bad Take'. Wow.

[nicmcv @nicmcv]

@Blitz_Burgh Can the guy not speak like a normal human being? "As I sit here tonight" twice? Most people would just say "now".

[nicmcv @nicmcv]

This guy covers sports for a living. Wow.

[Michael DeCourcy @tsnmike]

All I will say is, if you watched that game, and that season, and think the head coach is a problem … well what can one say to that?
It’s bewildering one could come to that conclusion.

[nicmcv @nicmcv]

Wow, what an absurd take. Seriously @MarkKaboly ?

[Mark Kaboly @MarkKaboly]

KABOLY: Steelers don’t need wholesale changes, but they can sure use some significant tweaks

Mark Kaboly / Steelers Correspondent
For The @PatMcAfeeShow

PITTSBURGH — After getting smacked all over Acrisure Stadium in what was yet another lopsided playoff loss by the Pittsburgh Steelers, it is more than understandable to want change – significant change.

When that loss made history as being the first team to lose five straight playoff games by double digits, and Mike Tomlin tied Marty Schottenheimer with nine first-round playoff losses, including seven postseason failures in a row, it’s hard to argue the point that the Steelers need a hard reset during the offseason.

T.J. Watt, who has yet to win a playoff game in his career, said the quiet part out loud following yet another season that ended without so much as a chance of advancing in the tournament.

In a handful of direct and to-the-point statements, Watt said plenty.

“Same story. I mean, you guys saw what happened,” Watt said.

The $40 million per year edge rusher went on to say: “It's extremely frustrating. Extremely frustrating,” and “I haven't had the answer for a long time, so don't ask me,” and “not enough right now.”

Even without context, you get the vibe of what Watt was talking about.

Of course, that aforementioned hard reset is not going to happen, nor should it.

The Steelers’ 30-6 loss to the Houston Texans in the wild-card round of the playoffs made it quite clear that something needs to be done, whether it is with the head coach, the coaching staff, or the personnel, but not to the point of wholesale changes, but what I’d label as selective tweaks.

“I think so,” 42-year-old quarterback Aaron Rodgers said, who has yet to decide on his future. “I think you've got a lot of the pieces in place, signing DK (Metcalf) obviously for five years. Now, there are some moving pieces because there have been some mercenaries. But I think that there's a good combination of young guys who are ascending, and there's some big decisions to be made.”

The biggest decision comes with the head coach.

An option for the 2027 season needs to be decided on (reportedly) within the next two months that could set the wheels in motion for the Steelers looking for a new head coach for the first time in nearly two decades.

It’s difficult to sit here and say that it's not the right path to go down, even after an AFC North title and the Steelers’ third-straight 10-win season (only four other teams have won 10 games over the past three seasons).

Their playoff futility has gotten to the point of being a butt of a joke rather than a believable result – six straight first-round exits in which they’ve never led in the second half of any of them, while being outscored by a laughable 106 points over their seven-game playoff losing streak that dates back to the 2016 season.

But moving on from Tomlin would be listed under the category of a wholesale change and not a tweak, and to me, the Steelers made enough strides this year to be allowed to make some strategic changes rather than starting over.

First off, they can’t start over completely because they are tied to guys like Zach Frazier, Mason McCormick, Troy Fautanu, Metcalf, Pat Freiermuth, Jaylen Warren, Derrick Harmon, Keeanu Benton, Joey Porter Jr., etc … for years to come.

It’s irrational to think that their core group of players drafted over the past three years of general manager Omar Khan’s regime can be, and should be replaced.

Khan has done a good job of not tying himself to a lot of outside free agents for multiple years, which allows the organization to make changes at will without damaging the overall structure of their salary cap.

He’s also shown that willingness – of course, with the blessing of owner Art Rooney II – to make significant offseason moves if that’s what the organization needs.

Sure, it’s a daunting task, but it's also something that’s not impossible to achieve.

I admit that it is difficult to see right now, but the Steelers made strides over a 12-month period.

The offensive line played well, for the most part, and appears to be set from the center over to the right tackle for the next decade.

Harmon has multiple Pro Bowls written all over him; Joey Porter Jr. – especially after his performance last night and really the entire season – has made that transition from a question mark to a legit shut-down cornerback.

Benton took that proverbial second year jump even though it was his third season, and the edge rushers of Alex Highsmith and Nick Herbig – even without Watt in the equation – took a step forward.

Now, those are nice players – core players – but those aren’t the ones you win Super Bowls with.

The Steelers need to find a long-term replacement at quarterback. A hard reset wouldn’t do much to advance that. Sorry, but there aren’t many Josh Allens and Drake Mayes out there to be drafted.

There are many more Kyler Murrays. Anthony Richardsons and Kenny Picketts, if you will.

Their best option just might be to run it back with Rodgers for one more year and go from there. There could be worse things they could do. What he may have lost in skills at his advanced age, the way he’s reset the culture of what it takes to play for a winning organization can’t be measured.

“I don’t know what is planned,” said Cam Heyward, who had an All-Pro year, but will be 37 heading into the final stage of his contract next year.

“Every guy should be a part of this team in the future, but I am not going to play GM right now. If 8 wants to come back, he has the right to come back, but I am not going to make that decision. That’s not fair to the Steelers or not fair to 8. That dude has earned my respect for what he has been through this year. He’s a hell of a teammate.”

This all leads us to the elephant in the room – Tomlin.

It’s hard to imagine that the Steelers would move on from him after turning this team around over the last month to win their first division title in five years and another 10-win season, but you never know.

To me, it would be counterproductive to move on from Tomlin because that would definitely be a hard reset.

No Tomlin means a complete overhaul of the coaching staff, as the majority of them have been recent hires. The strength staff would change, and potentially the scouting department – which recently went through an overhaul itself – would be prime for a shakeup as well.

You might say, “Good, that’s what they need,” and it would be hard to argue that.

The same things that plagued the Steelers all year all returned against the Texans, and if that’s not coaching, then I don’t know what is.

The Steelers' offensive line struggled to protect Rodgers (like it did earlier in the season)

They didn’t use Freiermuth almost at all (three targets despite playing 68% of the snaps). They struggled converting third downs (2 of 14).

They weren't able to stop the run (allowed Will Marks a career high 114 yards rushing). Missed tackles and had their share of busted coverages on third downs that resulted in 46-, 36-, and 33-yard completions to Christian Kirk.

“When you don't get it done, words are cheap,” Tomlin said. “It's about what you do, or you don't do. I appreciate the question, but people talk too much in our business. You either do or you don't.

Now, you can only come up short so many times in the big games before enough is enough. Maybe Rooney is at that point, but 55 years of history says he’s not.

A hard reset isn’t what this team needs.

They need better players and a better direction because maybe it doesn’t feel like it right now, but this team accomplished more than anybody thought it could in June and surely more than anybody imagined after getting boat-raced by Buffalo two months ago.

“I always feel optimistic about what we're capable of doing in terms of putting together a group, certainly,” Tomlin said.

Is that enough? No.

But it is enough to give it one more shot with a stern message from the owner to the coach that it would be his last.

“You've got to figure out who's coming back, who's not, but I think this team is always going to be competitive, and there's some pieces in place to have a chance to be competitive for a long time,” Rodgers said.

Something tells me Rodgers wouldn’t say that just to hear himself talk – he believes it.

But does Art Rooney II believe it?

Photo courtesy of the Pittsburgh Steelers

[Andrew Fillipponi @ThePoniExpress]

Retweet if you think it's time for the Steelers to fire Mike Tomlin.