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Rooneys waiting for results
Jerry DiPaola is the Tribune-Review high school sports editor. He can be reached via e-mail.
OK, fine. Then, what do you do with all those broken parts scattered all over the South Side?
Steelers coach Bill Cowher asked ownership to keep together the team that is currently 2-5 and stuck in last place in the AFC North. Chairman Dan Rooney and his son Art II, the team president, obliged, giving out signing bonuses and large overall contracts to about 26 players since signing running back Jerome Bettis to a six-year, $30 million contract in March 2001. The signing bonus checks, alone, totaled about $72 million.
With that type of investment, it makes no business sense to tear it down. Football sense is another matter.
That type of largesse wasn't affordable when the Steelers were playing their games in Three Rivers Stadium where pipes once broke during free agent cornerback Donnell Woolford's visit, spewing sewage all over the carpets in the lobby. (Woolford signed anyway.)
Heinz Field gives the Steelers richer revenue streams. When Cowher and other key front-office members saw the window of opportunity opening in 2000 -- the last of three non-playoff seasons -- they opted for solidarity.
It made a lot of sense, and the future looked bright after the Steelers were 13-3 in 2001 and reached the AFC Championship game. But the defense, especially pass defense, has regressed since then, even though six starters were signed to big contract extensions in the past three years.
St. Louis Rams quarterback Marc Bulger threw for 375 yards Sunday in a 33-21 victory against the Steelers, representing the second-most aerial yards allowed by the team in the regular season in two seasons and the fourth-most given up in the NFL this year.
Free safety Brent Alexander, 32, admitted that there was some poor play in the secondary.
"We left too many guys wide open," Alexander said. "(There were) miscommunications and not playing technique correctly, here and there. There were a couple of situations where we were right on the guy, and we just didn't make plays."
That's not what Rooney, a wise businessman, thought he was getting for his money.
Outside linebacker Jason Gildon, 31, received a $6.5 million bonus last year and a contract that will pay him $2.8 million this year.
Gildon, who needs two sacks to become the franchise's all-time leader, has one in seven games. The player he is chasing, four-time Super Bowl winner L.C. Greenwood, wondered aloud Sunday why it is taking Gildon so long to break the record.
Cornerbacks Chad Scott and Dewayne Washington were similarly blessed when they each got signing bonuses in excess of $5 million in 2001. They will be paid base salaries of $3.46 million and $3.75 million, respectively, in exchange for their services this year.
Scott has two interceptions, one of which he returned for a touchdown; Washington has none and only one in the past 15 games.
The Steelers believed Scott and Washington, who present a tough, physical presence in run defense, could do the job in coverage. If they are perceived as failures in that regard, there aren't many alternatives.
Deshea Townsend is a good backup cornerback, but not a difference maker at 5-foot-10, 191 pounds. Plus, the Steelers haven't drafted a cornerback in the first three rounds -- other than the departed Hank Poteat -- since Scott was picked first in 1997. Ike Taylor, this year's fourth-round choice, is an incredibly gifted athlete, but he's a rookie who played only one year at cornerback at Louisiana-Lafayette.
Cutting Scott or Washington, either last offseason or next year, is difficult and would damage the salary cap, because Scott is signed through 2006 and Washington 2005. If those players are released, their salaries are wiped from the books, but their bonus pro-rations -- totaling about $5.3 million -- must be paid, either now or in the future.
The possibility exists that the Steelers will find a way to withstand that sort of attack on their cap and retool the Steelers defense in the offseason. Especially, if it can't recover from the 2-5 start and make the playoffs.
Alexander, who is signed through 2004, said the future - other than his personal situation -- is "out of my hands."
Quarterback Tommy Maddox, who was not given a contract extension this year as the team put the brakes on much of its spending, could be replaced by Charlie Batch, if the situation worsens. Maddox, who was leading the NFL in passer rating after one week, has fallen to 24th at 71.2.
Maddox said the only remedy for the Steelers' problems is hard work.
"You have continue to work as hard as you work and know that, sooner or later, it's going to turn."
One way or another.
