The Pittsburgh Steelers made the difficult decision to part ways with Mike Tomlin because they were tired of high floors and low ceilings, the sort of all-too-conservative competence that strung them along just enough to set them up for heartbreak every January. So, naturally, they hired ... Mike McCarthy as his replacement, a man best known for winning lots of regular season games in as uninspiring a fashion as humanly possible. Okay then.
As much as this smacks of the familiar, though, it's a pretty significant shift in identity and culture. For as much as their resumes have in common, you'd be hard-pressed to find two guys with more different coaching backgrounds and personalities. And as McCarthy takes over the reins in Pittsburgh, it's safe to say he's going to remake this bloated, average roster in his image — with serious consequences for some of its biggest names.
CB/S Jalen Ramsey
It was a fraught season for Ramsey, who transition to big nickel/safety duties after it became clear he no longer had the requisite athleticism to handle outside corner (and injuries forced the Steelers' hand anyway). To his credit, he handled the shift pretty well, both on the field and off of it. But it's never easy to get a former All-Pro to adjust to a new reality, and Pittsburgh will have to navigate the situation carefully moving forward.
Of course, it would've helped if they'd hired Chris Shula, Ramsey's former defensive coordinator with the Rams (and exactly the sort of young, defensive-minded up-and-comer that Pittsburgh has been successful with in the past). But the Steelers decided it was worth acting now than even bothering to bring Shula in for an interview, and now Ramsey is stuck with McCarthy, a combustible situation if ever there were one. It's still probably too soon to consider trading Ramsey given his nearly $15 million dead-cap hit, but if things go south here, who knows?
LB Patrick Queen
Queen has been a fine enough player, but it's also safe to say that he hasn't quite lived up to the contract he signed with Pittsburgh a couple of years ago. As he enters the final season of that deal, the Steelers can save some $14 million or so in cap space by moving on — a tempting proposition, even if the likes of Payton Wilson and Malik Harrison don't inspire a ton of confidence as starters right now.
McCarthy's arrival necessarily means reorganization. Tomlin's guys were Tomlin's guys, and it's safe to say that a new head coach is going to look around and wonder whether his team's limited resources could be better allocated elsewhere. That's especially true given McCarthy's renewed emphasis on the offensive side.
RB Kenneth Gainwell
McCarthy consistently did more with less at the running back position, finding diamonds in the rough like Ryan Grant, James Starks, Ty Montgomery and Aaron Jones during his time in Green Bay. All of which is to say that it seems unlikely he'll push for Pittsburgh to pay up in order to retain Kenneth Gainwell in free agency come spring, especially with a solid two-down back in Jaylen Warren already on the roster.
Gainwell figures to get meaningful guaranteed money on the open market, and that's an expense this Steelers team can't really afford right now. Assuming Rodgers comes back, this offense is going to run through him anyway.
S Kyle Dugger
This one feels easy. Dugger profiled as an incredibly Tomlin-esque player when Pittsburgh made the decision to acquire him from the New England Patriots midseason, a decision that didn't pan out as the team had hoped. Now he'll almost certainly get released: Eight figures would be far too much to pay for his production even if the Steelers hadn't undergone a changing of the guard that left him vulnerable. There's no reason for McCarthy to go to bat for him, especially at this price tag.