Ed Bouchette: The Steelers' Way

Free agency? Ho-hum. When it comes to building a champion, the Rooney family still prefers the time-tested model of yesteryear.
Friday, January 21, 2005
By Ed Bouchette, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Growing the Steelers, 1996-2004, in .pdf format.
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Few will acknowledge it, but there were those within the Steelers organization who took one look at their team shortly after they concluded their 6-10 stumble through 2003 and wanted to place the call to Affordable Maids.

It was time to clean house. Overpaid and underachieving is no way to go through life in the NFL, son.

The line was a mess, the running game slinked to near the bottom of the league, the passing game wasn't efficient and the defense was getting old and slow.

Coach Bill Cowher and Kevin Colbert, their director of football operations, saw things differently. They would tinker with the lineup, inject some youth where things drooped, but they would not overhaul it. Where others saw a team on the downside, they perceived something else.
"It was certainly disappointing, but I think there were a lot of circumstances that existed that led to our record," Cowher said.

He mentioned injuries. He also acknowledged that the team's passing talent captivated him and he erred by leaning more on that part of the offense in 2003. Cowher vowed to return to what he termed "Steelers football," -- a strong running game and a savage defensive style.

The Ben Roethlisberger factor, unforeseen early on, would come later. First, a philosophic return to Cowher's own roots combined with some strategic plastic surgery on his lineup twisted what appeared to be a sagging, old heap of a club into the shiny model that whooshed to a 15-1 record and finds itself on the Super Bowl's stoop.

Not only did Cowher do it by playing "Steelers football" he did it the "Rooney way," through talent mostly developed on their own. It has been that way since Chuck Noll arrived in 1969, but the Rooneys stubbornly clung to those ideals through the free agency era that began in 1993. They believe in building through the draft and supplementing their talent with occasional free agents.

The Steelers who enter the AFC championship game Sunday are mostly home grown. Of the 53 players on their active roster, 25 are draft picks and 12 joined them as undrafted rookies. Others, such as cornerback Willie Williams and tight end Walter Rasby, began their careers with the Steelers and returned this season.

Only five of their 22 starters played elsewhere -- Jerome Bettis came in a trade with the Rams in 1996, while defensive end Kimo von Oelhoffen (Bengals), center Jeff Hartings (Lions), linebacker James Farrior (Jets), and Williams (Seahawks) signed as free agents, as did punter Chris Gardocki (Browns).

There is one more who should count: running back Duce Staley, their lone concession to free agency last year. He signed a five-year, $14 million contract, but he was more than another player. He represented Cowher's determination to recapture the team's ground game.

"It's no secret what we really want to do," Cowher said. "We like to try to establish a running game and the only way that you are going to be able to do that is to take a very physical approach to it. We like to play aggressive defense and I think that everyone recognizes that when they play us."

To do that, they needed an offensive line that could block for the run as it did not do in 2003. Yet Cowher and Colbert made no changes in that line. They banked on their linemen returning to health, and they would do that, with one exception.

Then Cowher wielded his scalpel. He released linebacker Jason Gildon, cornerback Dewayne Washington, safety Brent Alexander, all veteran starters, and let halfback Amos Zereoue disappear as a free agent. He also remade his coaching staff, highlighted by the return of former Bliltzburgh conductor Dick LeBeau as defensive coordinator.

The Steelers re-signed their own outside linebacker, Clark Haggans, as a free agent and added Staley.

And then along came Ben. The Steelers drafted Roethlisberger with the 11th pick in April after a slight debate over Shawn Andrews, a big offensive tackle from Arkansas. Roethlisberger was the first quarterback drafted by the Steelers in the first round since 1980. He would become the first quarterback in NFL history to win all 13 of his starts in one season. He would become Big Ben.
Cowher made three changes on defense. He inserted two young, fast, aggressive safeties into the starting lineup -- Troy Polamalu, their top draft pick in 2003, and Chris Hope, a third-round pick in 2002 -- and replaced Gildon with Haggans at outside linebacker.

Injuries would force many other changes on both sides of the ball as the season unfolded.
Williams replaced injured cornerback Chad Scott at midseason. Guard Kendall Simmons, their No. 1 pick in 2002, was lost for the season in August with a knee injury. Keydrick Vincent, with them since his rookie season in '01, replaced him. Linebacker Kendrell Bell missed most of the season because of groin injuries. Larry Foote, a fourth-round draft choice in 2002, started every game in his place. Pro Bowl nose tackle Casey Hampton, their No. 1 pick in 2001, was gone at midseason with a knee injury; Chris Hoke, an undrafted rookie with them since 2001, moved into Hampton's role.

On and on it went. The talent that had mostly been in their own system for several years and beyond stepped in for the injured, and the Steelers did not lose a game after Week 2. That included what looked to be the biggest injury of them all to starting quarterback Tommy Maddox in the second game. Roethlisberger stepped in, another talent mined through the draft.

"There is a very good chemistry, always has been around here in regards to the draft, with the scouting department and the coaching department," Cowher said. "I know that Kevin and we are always talking and he has a great feel for what we are looking for. He has a great eye for talent."

The continuity has helped, too. The Steelers, for example, have run a 3-4 defense for more than 20 years. That allows them to develop undersized college defensive ends who are quick and athletic into outside linebackers, such as Joey Porter and Clark Haggans. They prefer their tight ends block rather than worry about catching passes. They also want athletes on their offensive line, not mammoth statues who can't move.

"The system really hasn't changed through the years," Cowher said, "so players, when they are learning through the system when they step in, they are well-groomed players. That's been the one thing that has been good about keeping the continuity on both sides of the ball. I can say that we have changed coordinators on both sides of the ball, but the systems have not changed one bit."
It all paid off in one big way this season.

(Ed Bouchette can be reached at ebouchette@post-gazette.com or 412-263-3878.)