The Steelers missed the playoffs for the first time since 2009 last season and it’s hard to find too many people who think that the team is headed for a quick return to the good old days in the 2013 season.
That suits quarterback Ben Roethlisberger just fine. During an interview on 93.7 The Fan in Pittsburgh, Roethlisberger said he relished being counted out by the general public.
“Good. Go ahead. I guess it depends on who you ask and that is fine,” Roethlisberger said, via SportsRadioInterviews.com “I’m with people saying that we’re going to be terrible and, ‘Let’s overlook them,’ because that means our opponents are doing the same thing. I like that. I like being the hunter. It’s kind of a fun place to be. I’m OK with that.”
It’s the right mindset to have when approaching a football season, although we’re not quite sure that opponents are going to be taking the Steelers lightly in 2013. It’s just not the way things work when each game matters so much and, even if it did, it wouldn’t take more than a couple of wins for the Steelers to find themselves right back in the forefront of everybody’s minds.
The departures of wide receiver Mike Wallace, cornerback Keenan Lewis and linebacker James Harrison a year after several veterans were let go make it clear that the Steelers are a team in transition at the moment. That hardly rules out the possibility of a return to the playoffs, but it does mean that they are going to need other players to step up into leading roles to replace those that left the team in the last couple of years.