The Pittsburgh Steelers had a rough 2019. And it all started very early in the year when Ben Roethlisberger went down with an elbow injury that ended his season.
They clawed their way to a respectable 8-8 record, but still missed out on the playoffs.
Now comes 2020, and with it the expectation that Pittsburgh will have Roethlisberger back at quarterback. Clearly, that makes them a much more interesting and dangerous team in the upcoming season.
Analyst Jay Glazer of The Athletic seems to believe you shouldn't be sleeping on the Steelers either. However, in a mailbag segment, he also has some choice words about Roethlisberger's workout regiment.
“I feel like the Steelers are a real sleeper team this year. Their defense was really solid last year, it feels loaded. The offense suffered hard because of Ben’s injury but assuming he’s back to even 85% plus fitness show they should be in a very competitive position? —George F.
“First of all, let’s not put the words fitness and Ben Roethlisberger together, they are allergic to each other. There is no fitness in Ben Roethlisberger. His idea of a great off-season workout program is doing one yoga session, playing golf, and drinking some beer. However, yes, what Mike Tomlin and Roethlisberger have done there has been incredible. Mike Tomlin has never had a losing season with the Pittsburgh Steelers …
Despite injuries and they are obviously not the most aggressive team when it comes to free agency, having Le’Veon Bell holding out, the Antonio Brown situation, it’s incredible. He’s changed coordinators, gone through offensive coaches, defensive coordinators, but the dude has never had a losing season. Don’t sleep on them ever.”
That's a lot to unpack right there.
First of all, Glazer seems to be all in on Mike Tomlin as head coach. He rightly points out that the Steelers have never had a losing with Tomlin at the helm. That's despite all the craziness of the last few seasons.
At the same time though, he doesn't seem too fond of Roethlisberger's idea of a workout. The question Glazer was asked never even really brought up the quarterback's workout regimen and yet Glazer went into full attack mode for a sentence or two there.
Maybe he's doing that to prove just how good the duo is, though. Even without working to perfect his body, Roethlisberger has done amazing things under Tomlin. So don't count out the team. They could absolutely make some major waves in 2020. Even if the quarterback prefers the golf course to the weight room.
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