For the second straight year, a Pennsylvania-based team ended the regular season in a nosedive. The Philadelphia Eagles began the 2023 season with 10-1 record before losing five of their final six games and being booted from the playoffs in the wild-card round.
In 2024, the Pittsburgh Steelers replicated Philadelphia’s historic collapse. After starting the season with a 10-3 record, the Steelers lost the last four games of the regular season and were trounced by the Baltimore Ravens in the wild-card round.
Many of the team’s woes begin and end at quarterback, which has been a revolving door since Ben Roethlisberger retired. After quarterbacks Russell Wilson and Justin Fields left for the Meadowlands in free agency, the Steelers will once again need to find a new starting quarterback for the 2025 season.
Mike Tomlin and Russell Wilson’s relationship may have deteriorated
Wilson’s departure was expected after reports surfaced of his fractured relationship with offensive coordinator Arthur Smith, but there was still some hope of a reunion. The 10-time Pro Bowl quarterback wanted to remain with the Steelers before he agreed to terms with the New York Giants on Tuesday night, according to Gerry Dulac of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. The interest clearly wasn’t mutual. During an appearance on “The Herd,” FOX Sports’ Jordan Schultz reported that Wilson’s relationship with Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin had deteriorated as well.
“But as it’s been made clear to me, he does not have the same type of relationship he had with Mike Tomlin going back a year ago,” Schultz said on Monday.
Tomlin was one of Wilson’s biggest supporters just a year ago. He elected to bench Fields in favor of Wilson despite the former quarterback leading the team to a 4-2 record at the start of the season. Wilson was a far more polished and efficient passer than Fields, but it still wasn’t good enough to move the needle.
Wilson, like Fields, held onto the ball for far too long, took too many sacks and turned the ball over too frequently. Combined with some late-season fatigue in the trenches, Pittsburgh fell apart on both sides of the ball.
The Steelers' season was marked by the number five for all the wrong reasons. They ended the season with their first five-game losing streak since 1998. They were held to 17 points or fewer in five straight games for the first time since 1969, when Chuck Noll first became head coach. The Steelers also lost their fifth straight playoff game in the last eight years.
Those are not the sort of franchise streaks that the Steelers want to set, and it became evident that change was necessary once again.