Steelers president Art Rooney II addressed a number of pressing issues when it came to the state of his team Wednesday, including a 9-6-1 finish that he called "hard to swallow."
Rooney, speaking with a handful of reporters, also addressed the team's ongoing situations with Antonio Brown and Le'Veon Bell and whether his team is a "circus" because of those issues.
The Steelers missed the playoffs for the first time since the 2013 season, losing the AFC North by a half-game to the Ravens. They played the entire 2018 season without Bell, after placing the franchise tag on him for a second consecutive year, when he refused to report. Then, Brown went AWOL for the team's must-win regular season finale against the Bengals, showing up for part of the first half on the sideline after Mike Tomlin told him he would not be playing, then leaving before the half.
But those were not the reasons why the Steelers missed the playoffs, in Rooney's estimation.
"It was tough to swallow in the sense that we were so close so often to making the playoffs all the way down to literally the last couple of plays of the season. It makes it hard to swallow when you feel you were that close and you feel like you have a team that can compete if you get in," Rooney said.
"If I had to point to a couple of things that were problem areas, No. 1 was a lack of even an average kicking game. For somewhat inexplicable reasons, our kicker went from one of the best to one of the worst in the league. The games we won close last year, we didn’t win this year. Secondly, our minus turnover ratio, that’s always something that’s hard to overcome and something we need to address going forward."
The Steelers went 6-5-1 in one-score games in 2018 after going 8-2 in similar contests in 2017, when they finished 13-3.
Placekicker Chris Boswell, who entered the 2018 season coming off a Pro Bowl year and with a 90 percent career conversion rate on field goals, made just 13 of 20 field goals and missed five PATs in 2018 before landing on injured reserve at the end of the season, while the Steelers also finished minus-11 in turnover ratio.
The Steelers will enter 2019 hoping Boswell bounces back and providing competition for him in case that doesn't happen. Rooney, who said he would like the Steelers to be more balanced on offense in 2019, also feels the Steelers can come up with a plan to both increase their turnovers forced (15) along with limiting their own (26).
"On defense, we have to be more aggressive in taking the ball away and finding players that can do that," he said. "I think it is something you can improve on and we need to do that. On the offensive side, ball security is something we talk about a lot. We had some key fumbles and key interceptions at bad times. Those things lead to losing games. Those things are areas we can improve on."
The blame for those failures, he said, falls on everyone.
"When you miss the playoffs, nobody gets absolved — coaches, players, scouts, front office," Rooney said. "I think everybody knows we need to be better, including Mike (Tomlin). There’s no disagreement in the organization there. We can do better."
Tomlin fired outside linebackers coach Joey Porter and running backs coach James Saxon at the completion of the season. Earlier this week, offensive line coach Mike Munchak left to take the same position with the Broncos, citing family reasons. Assistant line coach Shaun Sarrett was elevated to replace Munchak, while the team also hired former Lions and Bengals defensive coordinator Teryl Austin as a defensive assistant who will work with the secondary.
That means the team still has at least three coaching spots to fill. Rooney said somebody on staff will be put in charge of helping Tomlin with the challenge process. Tomlin has missed on his last 11 challenge attempts, not having gotten one overturned since the 2016 playoffs.
"Having someone with that responsibility is important, and Mike and I have talked about that," Rooney said. "I’m not sure that person, that’s the only thing they do. It would have to be somebody who is on the staff who has a role to fill there. Whether we have the right people looking at that, it’s fair game for discussion."
As for the idea that the Steelers are some kind of out-of-control circus, Rooney disputed that.
"As far as I’m concerned, it’s nonsense," Rooney said. "We work hard to get to where we are. I think you evaluate the season, we didn’t achieve our goal of winning the division, but we finished a half game of winning the division. We had a lot of opportunities to get there. It’s disappointing, but I’m not sure how that makes you a circus."