The NFL has no official designation for the five weeks leading to the opening of training camps. Let’s call it the dust settles period.
Free agency, the draft, voluntary workouts, practices and minicamps are done. Players have been signed, cut, traded, signed to contract extensions. They’re all off on safaris, driving Ferraris or just hanging out. Coaches send them off with two commands during this period: stay in shape, stay out of trouble.
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It also can be a time of reflection, to consider what teams have done since last season to try to improve — or perhaps what they failed to do.
Take the Steelers. The dominant storyline since they missed the playoffs last season at 9-6-1 was the loss of two All-Pros on offense, Antonio Brown and Le’Veon Bell, even though the latter hasn’t played since 2017. Those two defections — Bell via free agency to the Jets and Brown via forced trade to the Raiders — prompted oddsmakers to downgrade their chances for 2019.
They entered 2018 among a handful of Super Bowl favorites (after a 13-3 record the previous season), but now are not even favored to win the AFC North Division. The Cleveland Browns, the darlings of the 2019 offseason, are ranked as top dogs there.
In their latest NFL odds, sports book BetOnline.AG has the Steelers chances of making the playoff at only 46.9 percent while putting the Browns’ chances at 55.1 percent. Baltimore is next in the division at 34.8 percent and Cincinnati is a woeful 13.6 percent. The odds on Cleveland to win the Super Bowl are 14-1, fifth in the NFL according to VegasInsider.com. The Steelers are 25-1.
Have the Steelers really slipped that much in one year?
It’s not as if they stood pat after watching Bell and Brown depart. They also were the only two players of any significance who left. Starting cornerback Coty Sensabaugh was not re-signed and remains a free agent without a team. No. 2 tight end Jesse James signed as a free agent with Detroit. Oft-injured tackle Marcus Gilbert was traded. They released two underperforming veterans they signed last year in free agency: safety Morgan Burnett and linebacker Jon Bostic.
Here is what they added to their defense:
- Cornerback Steven Nelson, an unrestricted free agent from Kansas City, will start.
- Rookie inside linebacker Devin Bush, the 10th overall pick in the draft, will start.
- Inside linebacker Mark Barron, released by the Los Angeles Rams for salary cap purposes. He could bump Vince Williams aside and start next to Bush. Even if he does not, the Steelers have improved greatly at the position from last season.
- Cornerback Justin Layne, a third-round draft choice, who looked good in the spring.
The Steelers defense has not been nearly as dominant as those that helped forge their three Super Bowl teams since 2005. However, they have slowly and sometimes painfully rebuilt that defense to one of the better ones in the NFL. They ranked sixth in the NFL in fewest yards permitted last season and tied for first with 54 sacks. Their greatest failing came in their meager turnover production. Their eight interceptions tied for worst in franchise history with their 1940 team, which played just 11 games.
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The major obstacle the Steelers faced during their reconstruction project was to replace the injured Ryan Shazier. They believe they finally did that by trading high in the draft to select Bush, who had a buzz-worthy spring with them. Among the disappointments lately was the failure of cornerback Artie Burns, benched as a starter for most of last season, and linebacker Bud Dupree’s lack of production. Both were first-round draft choices.
Nevertheless, the Steelers’ 2019 defense should be stronger than it was in 2018, including the natural progress of Terrell Edmunds, last year’s first-round pick, as he enters his second season at strong safety. If they can produce more turnovers, that improvement could be dramatic.
But it was the Steelers’ offense which lost those two All-Pros. It also lost Gilbert, traded to Arizona, and James.
Can it overcome those losses?
Here is what they did and how they might:
- They signed wide receiver Donte Moncrief as an unrestricted free agent. He and James Washington, their second-round pick from last season, will compete to become No. 2 with JuJu Smith-Schuster, their leading receiver last season and the clear No. 1 with Brown gone. They also drafted wide receiver Diontae Johnson with their first pick in the third round. Ryan Switzer, who joined them in a trade just before the start of the 2018 regular season, is expected to take on a larger role as their slot receiver and sometimes running back.
- Matt Feiler replaces Gilbert at right tackle, although replace is the wrong word since he started 11 games there last season for an injured and suspended Gilbert. The rest of the line returns intact, including three Pro Bowlers: left tackle Alejandro Villanueva, center Maurkice Pouncey and right guard David DeCastro, along with veteran left guard Ramon Foster. It should still be one of the best lines in the NFL.
- James Conner and Jaylen Samuels will be joined at halfback by rookie Benny Snell, drafted in the fourth round. Unlike years past, the Steelers do not plan to use one back exclusively. They will use all three, although Conner remains No. 1 and should get the majority of the work.
- Ben Roethlisberger remains their quarterback.
The one area still a question for them on offense is backup tight end. Starter Vance McDonald, who looked at times Gronk-like in 2018, could be on the verge of flourishing. But they did not replace James, although they did draft a tight end in the fifth round, Zach Gentry.
The offense ranked fourth in the NFL last season (403.3 yards per game) and tied for sixth in scoring (26.8), even without Bell’s services. Had kicker Chris Boswell not had such a terrible season, they would have won two or three more games and won their division.
The Steelers really only lost Brown from last season as a significant contributor because Bell missed it. They added much more both to their offense and defense. Did Antonio Brown mean that much that the Steelers, despite improvements virtually everywhere else, should falter as the oddsmakers predict?
It might be a good bet that they did not.
(Photo by: Shelley Lipton/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)