Tim Benz: How are we to believe Art Rooney II is feeling ‘urgency’ when he’s already walking back his ‘impatient’ statements?
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Pittsburgh Steelers owner Art Rooney II continues to preach the same message. We all continue to wait for a different result.
During his season-ending press conference, Rooney II said, “I think there’s an urgency. I think everybody, myself, Mike (Tomlin), guys that have been on the team for a while, T.J. (Watt), Cam (Heyward), everybody, we’ve had enough of this. It’s time to get some wins. It’s time to take these next steps. So, yeah, I think there’s some urgency here, for sure.”
On Tuesday, during an interview with Bob Pompeani of KDKA-TV, Rooney II went from “urgency” to “impatient.”
“I made that comment for a lot of us who have been in the organization for a while, and I include Mike Tomlin in this; we are getting impatient,” Rooney said. “We want to take that next step. We want to win playoff games and go deep into the postseason. So, we miss being a part of that, and that’s where the urgency is. We need to get back to playing football deep into January and hopefully February.”
I’ll say the same thing about Rooney II being “impatient” that I said before about him feeling “urgency.”
Great. Wonderful. It’s about time.
Now, show me how that is going to manifest because I don’t see it.
You are extending the same head coach who has failed to win a playoff game 11 of 13 years. You are extending the defensive coordinator. You are reinserting a QB who got benched at the end of the previous year. And the new offensive coordinator, Arthur Smith, has exactly the same mentality on that side of the ball as the current head coach.
Urgency, thy name is status quo.
Also, as part of that KDKA interview, Rooney was asked if the team would be willing to “trade for a current quarterback if the price was right” during the offseason.
Rooney II kept that possibility open.
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“As we sit here in early February, we are not closing the door on anything,” Rooney II replied. “We have a lot of evaluations to go through, and we’ll go through all the options and do what we need to do to be better this coming season.”
OK. Now we’re talking.
I’m not exactly sure who that QB would be. To me, in terms of potential QB trade targets, that basically sounds like Justin Fields of the Chicago Bears or bust. If that doesn’t happen, it wouldn’t break my heart. I’m not the world’s biggest fan of Fields.
However, if the franchise did make such a move, that would at least suggest to me that the front office was serious regarding Rooney II’s message about urgency and impatience.
And I’d appreciate the effort.
But then, on Wednesday, Rooney II turned around and couched those comments to Andrew Stockey of WTAE.
“The question I was asked was, ‘Would I consider anything like that?’ ” Rooney II said to Stockey. “As we sit here today, we don’t want to close the door on anything. But I’d probably put it in the unlikely category.
“Look, we like to look at any opportunity we think can make us better, so that’s why I don’t close the door on anything. But I don’t want to create a lot of speculation out there that we’re going out to make some big blockbuster trade at the QB spot. I don’t. I’d put it in the unlikely category.”
Soooooo, what happened there?
Was Rooney II too uncomfortable with his own scalding-hot take of a definite maybe about trading a second- or third-round pick for Justin Fields that he felt the need to walk it back?
Ah, yes. “Urgency” and “impatient” indeed.
I’m feeling the ground quake. Somebody help me. My knees are getting weak.
“Urgency” usually has a better connotation than “impatience.” I don’t care. I’ll take either at this point. But Rooney II’s delivery falls short of either.
Just wake me up when there is proof of either thing actually ever occurring. In the meantime, I’ll be over here waiting for the local baseball team to get serious about boosting payroll to a competitive level.
Let’s see what happens first.