Jul 22, 2022 5 min read

Are you ready for some football?

The uptick in comments on my stories at DKPittsburghSports.com, on social media and other places suggest everyone is ready for the Steelers to jump into the post-Ben Roethlisberger era.

But what will it look like for the Steelers?

Critics of Mike Tomlin – and they’re a loud group – suggest the only reason he’s never had a losing season is because of the presence of Roethlisberger, a future first-ballot Hall-of-Fame quarterback.

Those people gloss over the 2019 season.

The Steelers had Roethlisberger for just 1 ½ games that season as he played in the opener and then the first half of the team’s Week 2 loss to the Seahawks before his elbow gave out.

Going into Week 3, the Steelers were 0-2 and things looked bleak. They finished the season 8-8 with Mason Rudolph and Devlin Hodges making their first career starts that season.

And they were 8-5 with three weeks to play before the wheels came off offensively and they lost their final three games.

It says here that Mitch Trubisky is a better quarterback than Rudolph or Hodges were in 2019 – or will be at any point in their lives.

The Steelers also are better at tight end with Pat Freiermuth, at running back with Najee Harris and at wide receiver – remember, James Washington led the team in receiving yards that season – than they were in 2019.

Now, the Steelers also finished that season third in scoring defense, something they’ll have to work hard to get back to in 2022. But remember, the team lost Stephon Tuitt in a Week 6 win against the Chargers in 2019.

He’s been replaced this year by Larry Ogunjobi.

At inside linebacker, Myles Jack is an upgrade over Vince Williams and Mark Barron, who split time in 2019 next to rookie Devin Bush.

And at that point in 2019, T.J. Watt was just becoming one of the most dominant defensive players in the NFL.

Yet some are predicting the Steelers are going to win five or six games or wind up with a top-10 draft pick.

Remember, many were predicting a top-10 pick in 2019, as well. At least that was what critics said when they ripped the team’s trade for safety Minkah Fitzpatrick. How could the Steelers give away what was sure to be a top-10 pick in 2020 with Roethlisberger injured?

The Steelers were in the playoff race right down to the end of the season that year.

Why should this season be any different?

• So, the Browns have signed Josh Rosen as a potential backup to Jacoby Brissett while they wait for Deshaun Watson to become eligible to play.

Rosen was 2 of 11 passing with two interceptions for the Falcons in limited playing time in 2021.

Cleveland’s plan beyond Watson is Brissett, who owns a 14-23 record as a starter, Josh Dobbs, who has thrown 17 career passes, and Rosen, who is now on his sixth NFL team after being taken with the 10th pick in the 2018 NFL Draft.

Yeah, that should work out well.

• The Ravens couldn’t have been happy to see the Cardinals give quarterback Kyler Murray a five-year, $230.5-million contract extension earlier this week.

That’s $46.1 million per year for a player whose closest comparison is Lamar Jackson.

Only Jackson has won a league MVP award and Murray, well, he hasn’t won anything.

Jackson doesn’t have an agent. He and his family serve as his negotiators.

Jackson is likely to be asking the Ravens for around $50 million per year. And based on the contracts given to Murray and Watson this offseason, that is the going rate.

• Acrisure Stadium doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue, but with that company paying the Steelers $10 million per year over the next 15 seasons for stadium naming rights, the team had no choice but to accept the deal.

The $2.7 million per year the team received from Heinz for naming rights previously pales in comparison.

You can hate the name all you want, but the Steelers had 150 million reasons to go with that name.

• How much has the Founders League, from which the Washington County team in the Pony World Series is chosen, grown?

In addition to this year’s World Series entry, the Founders League also has two teams that will compete in the Host Zone tournament in an effort to secure a spot in next month’s World Series.

Now, that doesn’t mean either will get to the World Series, but with 15 teams in the Founders League this season, there was a great deal of talent, more so than in many years past.

This year’s host team in the Pony World Series, managed by Davis & Elkins baseball coach Tyler Rubasky, should be extremely competitive.

Dale Lolley covers the Steelers for DKPittsburghSports.com and writes a Sunday column for the Observer-Reporter.