Ranking the most important Steelers for the 2019 season

General manager Kevin Colbert took some heat in the winter with his “52 kids” comment about Ben Roethlisberger when it comes to the rest of the team.

It wasn’t only blown out of proportion, but it was taken out of context by nearly everybody except the dozen or so reporters in the room at the time. Colbert was making a general statement about how Roethlisberger is the only person on the entire roster who knows what it takes to win a Super Bowl.

It’s been 11 years since the Roethlisberger-to-Santonio Holmes touchdown won Super Bowl XLIII in Tampa, but it also now has been nine years since the Steelers have last been to the Super Bowl. Only Roethlisberger and Ramon Foster played in that game against the Packers, as Maurkice Pouncey was injured.

More than that, only Mike Tomlin and tight ends coach James Daniel hold the same position on the coaching staff as they did in 2010.

For the Steelers to get back to the Super Bowl after a season in which they lost four of their final six games to go 9-6-1, surrendered the AFC North title to the Ravens, failed to qualify for the playoffs for the first time in five years and lost Antonio Brown and Le’Veon Bell in the offseason, a lot is going have to go right for them.

Even though football is a team game — and with what has transpired with the Steelers over the past couple of years the players will continue to stress that the entire season — there are individuals who are more critical than others.

Here’s my list of the top 10 most important Steelers for the 2019 season:

10) Bud Dupree

Say what you want about Dupree — underachiever, waste of money, another bust pass-rusher — but what you can’t dismiss is his speed, his power, his strength and the need that the Steelers have for him to have the best season of his career.

The Steelers will pay Dupree $9.5 million this year after picking up his fifth-year option. That’s a lot of money for a guy who has never had more than six sacks in a season and has only 20 for his career. They need more production from him. Being a contract year, having a new position coach, having another year rushing from the right side … it could happen.

The Steelers need more production than what he’s been giving them, and it’s easily attainable. Dupree has 11.5 sacks the past two years, and it could have been more. There are at least a half dozen examples of him letting the quarterback slip through his hands or a tackle holding him that would’ve resulted in a sack.

To help the offense, help the secondary and protect T.J. Watt, Dupree has to produce and stay healthy, especially with a lack of depth at the position.

9) Stephon Tuitt

Right before the Steelers signed Tuitt to a $60 million deal two years ago, there was a belief (by me) that he was nose-to-nose with Cam Heyward as the best player on the defense and actually maybe a little ahead of him.

I am comfortable enough to say that I was wrong but not because Tuitt isn’t a special talent. It’s just that he’s had two tough injury years that have severely stunted his development as one of the team’s most disruptive players. He has 8.5 sacks in his past 26 games but hasn’t been able to dominate as you would want from a $60 million defensive end.

If Tuitt can return to his pre-2017 self, it will force teams to be more straight up with their blocking schemes, leaving one-on-one matchups for both Heyward and Javon Hargrave.

A return to his old self would make the Steelers defensive line one of the best in the league that would go a long way in helping this defense be better, which is going to be needed with the uncertainty of the offense right now. The defense has to play better; they have to pressure the quarterback, and they have to force turnovers. All that can happen with the old Tuitt making a full return.

8) Vance McDonald

McDonald has to stay healthy.

The Steelers like their other tight ends — Xavier Grimble and fifth-rounder Zach Gentry — but there isn’t much experience at all between the two. And with Jesse James cashing in with the Lions, there is no safety net in place for the middle of the field if McDonald gets banged up.

Roethlisberger’s two favorite targets over the past 10 years are now gone — Heath Miller and Brown. Since Miller retired a couple of years back, the middle of the field mostly has been a barren wasteland. McDonald has shown an ability to be a between-the-hashes target, which is more critical now since Brown is gone. But they have been just flashes.

McDonald likely will be on the first for 80 percent of snaps, and he’ll have to produce if the offense wants to come close to matching its output from a season ago.

7) Chris Boswell

You would think Boswell would be more important than No. 7 after a dreadful year in which a couple of kicks would have changed the entire narrative on the Steelers’ season.

Boswell isn’t important. However, the kicker position is, and the Steelers made that abundantly clear when they gave Boswell an ultimatum in March: delay a $2 million roster bonus or the team will release you.

It is very important that they find a reliable kicker, whether it is Boswell, camp leg Matthew Wright or somebody off the street. This team isn’t good enough to overcome a kicker who was among the worst in the league a year ago in field goal and extra point percentage.

To have any chance of winning the division and have a legitimate chance of making a run at the Super Bowl, they need a reliable kicker.

6) James Conner

Say what you want about Jaylen Samuels and Benny Snell Jr. — they are nice complementary running backs — but for the Steelers to reclaim the division and have a legitimate shot at the Super Bowl, Conner has to be better than last year.

Don’t get me wrong; Conner wasn’t bad. But the Steelers need the Conner from the first nine games (4.7 yards per carry/10 TDs) not the Conner from the final seven (3.9/2 TDs), three of which he didn’t play.

When Conner was at his best during a five-game stretch in the middle of the season, the offense put up more than 40 points per game and won every game. He provided a balance to the offense that wasn’t there late in the season during the team’s struggles.

Samuels and Snell won’t be able to provide the same spark, even though the Steelers want to use them to limit Conner’s workload (I still don’t believe that will materialize). They need the “Cleveland” Conner — 280 yards and four touchdowns last year — all season and not just in two games against the Browns.

5) Maurkice Pouncey

When it comes to the depth chart, this one doesn’t make much sense. B.J. Finney has proven in the past that he can fill in for Pouncey and be successful. Even before Finney, there was Cody Wallace who proved the offense could succeed without Pouncey.

Over his career, Pouncey has missed 40 games, mostly due to injury, and the Steelers have a .600 winning percentage. In the games he’s played in (116), they have a .651 winning percentage — not a big difference, but significant enough.

I don’t want to take my chances not having the heart and soul of the offensive line either not playing or not playing at a high level. Pouncey’s ability to get to the second level consistently is what made him a seven-time Pro Bowler (basically every healthy year of his career).

The Steelers are going to need to run the ball more this year — well, it’s hard to run less than they did last year — and Pouncey is the one who makes that happen with his calls, his tenacity and his athleticism.

4) Devin Bush

It is kind of unrealistic to expect much production from a rookie considering both Troy Polamalu and Ryan Shazier struggled their first year. But that’s not the case with Bush, the Steelers’ top pick in April’s draft.

Whether he’s a starter at the beginning of the season is irrelevant. He will be on the field more often than not just because of his speed alone. That will allow defensive coordinator Keith Butler to work with players who fit the scheme he wants to run rather than concoct a scheme for the players he has available to him.

So, Butler can employ any of his sub-package defenses without the fear of the opposition taking advantage of a bad matchup, i.e., Jon Bostic covering Keenan Allen on a critical play late in the game against the Chargers.

If that’s all Bush is used for this year and is successful, it will instantly make the defense so much better. And as I’ve said before, the defense needs to be better this year.

3) JuJu Smith-Schuster

If this were based on pressure alone, Smith-Schuster would be a runaway winner. With Brown in Oakland now, the heavy lifting now is Smith-Schuster’s responsibility. Whether he can pull that off will go a long way in determining the outcome of this season.

Even though all indications suggest Smith-Schuster will be able to put up the numbers like he did last year (111 catches, 1,426 yards, seven touchdowns), we just won’t know until we see how he performs in double-coverage.

There is a small sample size — three games — in which Brown didn’t play and Smith-Schuster averaged six catches for 82 yards and a touchdown, but the most recent time wasn’t awe-inspiring. The season finale last year, Smith-Schuster was doubled a lot and managed only five catches for 37 yards and a touchdown.

With the receiver group behind Smith-Schuster not having much of a resume (Donte Moncrief, James Washington, Ryan Switzer, Diontae Johnson), the pressure is on for him to at least equal his production from a year ago. If it proves to be too big for him, then the Steelers are in big trouble.

2) Ben Roethlisberger

Typically, Roethlisberger is the most important Steeler every year. And if we were talking about health alone, he would be a runaway winner.

If Roethlisberger goes down for any length of time (he has actually been pretty healthy the past six seasons), the Steelers’ season is over. Josh Dobbs and Mason Rudolph are good backups right now, but they aren’t championship-caliber quarterbacks on a team that has some glaring weaknesses/unknowns.

This offense is Roethlisberger. Where the critical part comes in is with the interceptions. He led the league last year with four red-zone picks, all while targeting Brown.

The Steelers plan to run the ball more this year, but Roethlisberger still will surpass 550 passes; that’s just what this offensive coordinator, this quarterback and this offense want to do. The only question will be who he throws it to since Brown is gone.

1) T.J. Watt

With a questionable Steelers’ secondary that struggled to create turnovers last year, a heavy dose of Watt is going to be imperative to the success of this defense. It has to be more than just against the Browns in which seven of his 20 career sacks have come against.

Watt definitely has the talent to be that disruptive force this defense so desperately needs.

Watt finished seventh in the league with 13 sacks and has 20 in two years. Since it became an official stat in 1982, only five linebackers — Aldon Smith (33.5), Derrick Thomas (30), Miller (30), Shawne Merriman (27), Clay Matthews (23.5) and Terrell Suggs (22.5) — had more sacks over their first two years than Watt.

Older brother J.J. Watt, a defensive end and three-time defensive player of the year in his first five years, had 26 in his first two years, which helps put the younger Watt’s fast start into perspective.

But seven of Watt’s career sacks have come against the Browns. He will have to be as disruptive up and down the schedule.

If Watt doesn’t turn into that game-changing defensive player this year, then the Steelers will have a difficult time winning the division, let alone a Super Bowl.

(Photo by Philip G. Pavely / USA TODAY)