Steelers president Art Rooney II said Wednesday that offensive coordinator Todd Haley will meet with officials from the Arizona Cardinals about their vacant head coaching position.
The Cardinals received permission from the Steelers to speak to Haley last week, but Haley has not yet interviewed.
“When a guy has an opportunity to be a head coach, I don’t think there are many teams that would withhold that permission these days,” Rooney told Steelers.com. “He’s a good, young coach and has opportunities, and I certainly wouldn’t stand in his way if he had that kind of opportunity.”
Rooney said he was happy with the job Haley did with the Steelers’ offense this season. The Steelers were 6-3 before an rib and shoulder injuries to quarterback Ben Roethlisberger forced him to miss three games as Pittsburgh lost five of its final seven games to finish 8-8.
“If we look at it in terms of nine games into the season, our offense was functioning at a pretty high level,” said Rooney. “Ben was on track to have his best season of all time, and he was taking fewer sacks. So a lot of the things we were hoping for were happening. After he got hurt, our offense seemed to lose its rhythm, and even after Ben came back we never really regained that momentum.
“You have to look at it as: OK, when our quarterback was healthy what did we have? And what we had I thought was pretty good. Not that there aren’t things we don’t want to improve, but you would think the second year of a new offense would be better than the first. Hopefully those kinds of things will evolve in our favor.”
So ... was Ben not healthy during the critical stretch when he returned from injury?
ReplyDeleteWhy was the offense so out of sync after Ben came back? Was he not right, or was there something else?
I've been saying for weeks that he wasn't healthy. Nothing anything would talk about, but he took a big hit early in the fourth quarter against Dallas. Got up rotating his shoulder.
ReplyDeleteArt II doesn't even care if we win games anymore. He just wants an offensive coordinator that pisses off Ben.
ReplyDeleteThere are certainly areas to improve on both sides of the ball. Ben being hurt cost us the post season, that simple, same way the injury hurt our rythm last year. If this team is healthy look out...key words "if healthy"...those are big words in the NFL. The biggest change we may need is in the strength and conditioning area...
ReplyDeleteHopefully we can finally put together a consistent running game to get Ben in better situations. If you want to keep Ben healthy putting him in 3rd and short situations will really help. I'm willing to bet the biggest hits he takes are on 3rd and long trying to make a play. Defenses can't tee off on Ben when it's 3rd and short because they have to defend the run or short throw.
ReplyDeletePlus if we had a running game worth a damn Ben's injury wouldn't have been so bad for the offense, since the running game could have carried some of the load. Instead we got 5(!) fumbles in one game!
if Stefan Logan is around during the offseason, can we sign him to be the designated waste of a roster spot?
ReplyDeleteRainey can't be that guy anymore. Please don't draft one.
I hate a designated spot on a kick returner who does little to nothing else. (Please don't see Rainey was a good RB or Haley's McCluster)
Patrick,
ReplyDeleteI won't say good RB, but I will say rookie who contributed. That's better than some draft picks.
On the other point, of course we shouldn't draft another one.
Excited about the highest draft pick in a while (as much as one can be about any award for not being great)
Zac in Tempe
Adios Rainey. One offense too many.
ReplyDeleteJimbo
Do you mean like a kickoff specialist, Patrick?
ReplyDeletein 2009 the steelers couldn't stop the other team from returning kicks and had Logan on the roster, who did next to nothing.
ReplyDeleteI said if the Steelers were going to waste a roster spot on Logan they should let him go and get a kicker who could boom them into the endzone.
Had they been able to stop a return in one of those games, they probably would have made the playoffs.
So anonymous, you are taking something I said 3 seasons ago and putting it into your own context.
nope. before last season, after the kickoff rule change you wanted a kickoff specialist to kick the ball out of the back of the endzone. it was very dumb since you were suggesting it after a rule change that made kickoffs shorter. you were talking about suisham who only joined the team in 2010. but go ahead and argue about something. that's all you do here.
ReplyDeletefrom something I posted in 2009:
ReplyDelete"kick off specialist" as in a kicker. If we're going to delegate a roster spot to an average returner who could easily be replaced by someone on the current roster, why not use that spot for a kicker to kick the ball well into the endzone to help with this problem?
I really hope they start REALLY looking at some of these guys character before drafting them. IMO they have gotten away from their recipe for success was that built their dynasty.
ReplyDeleteQuite a few D-Bags on this team and it is becoming well just sad
i'm not sure why rainey gets so much criticism. as a rookie, i thought he did well at RB. of course he's not a feature guy or a bruiser. but, he presents a different skill set that can cause matchup problems for a defense.
ReplyDeleteas a kickoff returner, he was good. i think top 10 in the NFL in average.
but, obviously he lost the privilege of being a steeler.
and, patrick, i also thought you wanted a kickoff specialist AFTER the rule change.
I'm pretty sure Patrick has petitioned for a long kicking kick after 2009:
ReplyDelete"Patrick said...
Dale,
Is there any chance that the Steelers will ink a long term deal with that long-kicking kicker?"
http://nflfromthesidelines.blogspot.com/2011/08/tuesday-news-and-notes_23.html
"Patrick said...
we should trade Redman for that long-kicking kicker the Saints have
get it done Rooney!"
http://nflfromthesidelines.blogspot.com/2011/09/redman-to-get-more-work.html
you can't possibly think those posts were written by me, right?
ReplyDelete