Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin spoke to the media after the NFL league meeting and offered a rare glimpse of positivity when he reflected on last season and looking ahead to 2023.
“It’s probably a reflection of us and where we were,” Tomlin said. “But I’ve been pretty transparent about that, we were very much a unit and a squad in development a year ago. We don’t apologize for that. We did what we had to do to make ourselves competitive and particularly down the stretch to put ourselves in a position to win. It provides a platform for us to grow from and those are our intentions.”
If we are being honest, expectations were low for the Steelers going into the 2022 season. The retirement of Ben Roethlisberger marked the end of one era and the start of a new one with Kenny Pickett at quarterback. And while the team performed as expected the first half of the season, stumbling over themselves, the bye week changed everything.
Pittsburgh turned to the run game and let Pickett come into his own without the pressure to carry the offense. Even the defense saw improvement down the stretch, albeit against less-than-stellar teams. Nevertheless, the fact this group was competitive until the final game of the season is a great sign for 2023.
