Rate this season.

[Edman]

We hit the wall, folks.

We can't beat New England. Period. We just can't. We keep making it so easy for them. We play right into their hands. Each and every single time.

Brady beats the Zone Defense? Let's drop eight and play zone defense all game. It's not working? Keep doing it anyway.

Can't finish drives or convert in the Red Zone. Again.

Bell gets hurt.

AB disappears. He'll get a lions share of the blame for this shitfest. Good luck living this down, Clown.

Ben with yet another decent but unimpressive road performance.

New England didn't have to go through you, Tomlin? Well they just did. Sit down, Cheerleader.

So with all of the crap out of the way. Where do we go from here for 2017 and beyond?

[faninyork]

Hate to say it but we won't change a thing. Same story next year....if we're lucky.

[GBMelBlount]

11-5

AFC Championship game.

Young and inexperienced players that is quickly improving.

Only 4 of 32 teams made it this far.

9 (A-).

[DesertSteel]

A-

Start 4-5 and make it to the AFCC. I'll take it.

[st33lersguy]

Overall, this season is a success, young team, started 4-5, still a solid coaching effort

[teegre]

F

If you aren't first, you're last.
--Reese Bobby

[SteelerCountry58]

I'm furious with this last pathetic game but this season was a B for me considering the slow start.

[Iron Steeler]

F

If you aren't first, you're last.
--Reese Bobby

I was hoping we could capture a SB with this extremely young defense. And start a dynasty like the 70s.

I would give it an A on offense
I would give a C on Defense
Avgeraging out at B-

[EzraTank]

You can't lay eggs against Philly, Miami and Baltimore. That horrible stretch was the difference between the Patriots embarrassing us in Pittsburgh instead of New England.

Just too disappointed right now to comment rationally. Bell's groin better be torn off the bone to puss out like that. Our defense is young but unless we find a pass rush we will NEVER beat elite teams.

[WCSteeler]

The season was a B. The Steelers made the playoffs, beat a wildcard team with a 2nd string QB, couldn't muster a TD again to the Chiefs and were blown out Packers style at New England, it's clear the Steelers were outcoached (yet again) and that's an irritating trend and just won't go away. The leaded of the team is really showing signs of age and injuries mounting and sadly he won't be getting better. The team lacks leadership, the defense is getting better but offense really stalls in the red zone. It was an up and down season but ended witha familiar lackluster performance.

[tube517]

I never thought we'd make it this far with a young defense, all the injuries and no deep threat WR for weeks.

At 4-5 did anyone really think we would get to this point?

On the shitty side:
Playing scared in a zone defense that gets you beat time and time again.
And no deep threat WR finally caught up with us. Coates drops one early and Hamllton is 8th string so expecting something out of him was ridiculous.
Grade: B

[GoSlash27]

I'm ambivalent about it. I set the bar pretty low; make the playoffs and I'm happy. OTOH, we could've taken it to the big show. We left too many points on the field.
Such is life in the NFL (Tomlinism). We will come back better next year.

[lipps83]

Overall, good season despite the end result. Further than I thought they would get when it was mid october.

F though because not a damn thing will change next season. Haley will still be dumb in the redzone, and Butler.....unfortunately Tomlin would be fired before Butler.

Butler I think has a job for life. Class A idiot this guy is.

[Lambert_Loonie]

B-. The offense underachieved considering the pieces they have, and as much as everyone hates Keith Butler right now, the defense overachieved.

The fact that the Steelers made it this far just shows how trash the AFC really is.

[steelreserve]

Second place is the first loser.

F.

[AtlantaDan]

B+

The Bryant suspension for the season and Bell for the first three games knocked down any expectations the Steelers would have an offense for the ages (the Falcons got that)

We all know the secondary needed a rebuild and Burns & Davis exceeded my expectations. Along with Hargrave the draft was a success, and this now is a fast defense.

They lost to the Pats in the AFC championship but are still a top tier team but not elite. Going into next season I slot them below the Pats (duh) and the Raiders in the AFC.

Ben needs to stay healthy - he was not 2014 Ben this season and may have about 2 years left as prime Ben

[Lambert_Loonie]

I'm ambivalent about it. I set the bar pretty low; make the playoffs and I'm happy. OTOH, we could've taken it to the big show. We left too many points on the field.
Such is life in the NFL (Tomlinism). We will come back better next year.

I hope you're right about the next year being better. The only reason I watched the game til the end was because IMO the Steelers ceiling is going to be the Divisional round for a LONG time - at least under Tomlin.

[Craic]

Grade? Overall, B+ Great second half effort. We were one win short of the SB.

Where do we go from here?

1. I'm going to sound like a broken record, but, fire Butler. We need to bring in another coach who is willing to mix up schemes. Do it NOW while we have a young set of DBs.

2. Offense 1: STOP feeding Brown the ball until he gets injured. Spread the joy.

3. Offense 2: Make a rule starting TONIGHT. If you even smell like you've been around marijuana, we (the Steelers) will trade you to the Tallahassee Warthogs for a used ball bag. We need consistency at the WR position.

4. Offense 3: Take the blinders off. Ben is not the same QB he once was, and we need to start game planning for that on the road. At home, he's still great. But on the road he's average to above average. That has to be taken into consideration next year.

5. Fire the ST coach and spend the money to bring in a very good one. Enough is enough.

6. DO NOT draft out of urgency. This team is still a very good team. In fact, trade away our first round pick for a 2018 1st round pick and get ready to draft the next QB, because we're going to need one in about 2-3 years.

[Rotorhead]

B+ because we are a young defense, missing key weapons on offense, our best def player out mid season. I am happy with the team this year overall. Will be better next season, which was my pick for our legit SB run.

[JimHarbaugh'ssoakedtissue]

I give it a limp dick early on and a big cock tease at the rest of the season.

[Shoes]

Grade? Overall, B+ Great second half effort. We were one win short of the SB.

Where do we go from here?

1. I'm going to sound like a broken record, but, fire Butler. We need to bring in another coach who is willing to mix up schemes. Do it NOW while we have a young set of DBs.

2. Offense 1: STOP feeding Brown the ball until he gets injured. Spread the joy.

3. Offense 2: Make a rule starting TONIGHT. If you even smell like you've been around marijuana, we (the Steelers) will trade you to the Tallahassee Warthogs for a used ball bag. We need consistency at the WR position.

4. Offense 3: Take the blinders off. Ben is not the same QB he once was, and we need to start game planning for that on the road. At home, he's still great. But on the road he's average to above average. That has to be taken into consideration next year.

5. Fire the ST coach and spend the money to bring in a very good one. Enough is enough.

6. DO NOT draft out of urgency. This team is still a very good team. In fact, trade away our first round pick for a 2018 1st round pick and get ready to draft the next QB, because we're going to need one in about 2-3 years.

I agree with this. I was all for the Steelers interviewing other coaches for DC. They hung on to Lebeau far too long and probably promised Butler the position. For point #7 I'd get rid of Sammie Stiff Coates, he's going to be the new Antwon Blake.

[zulater]

If you get an F on the final exam you can't claim you did good on the course. Losing the way we did really makes this season suspect.

[Mojouw]

B to B+

Several young players developed at an amazing rate. The foundation of the rebuild is now complete. Time to put the finishing touches on it with another pass rusher and another DB.

[JimHarbaugh'ssoakedtissue]

Horrible Job with the talent this team has! Big D!

- - - Updated - - -

It is what it is and life goes on and hope to see ya all on here around draft time. Was fun Bs with most of ya and take care!

[Rotorhead]

If you get an F on the final exam you can't claim you did good on the course. Losing the way we did really makes this season suspect.

This Pats game was the same as they all are, wrong def and no adjustment added with crappy luck and plays at the wrong time. We built a very good foundation this year. I believe most all of us thought next year would be our true SB run year. Good exp for our young players so not a bad season overall.

[LloydWoodson]

8.5/10

Getting back to the AFC Championship felt like overachieving at this point. The only downside was some of the poor calls and execution yesterday.

Any season you can win a playoff game is a good season it means you made a run at the Super Bowl. Well done with a lot of young players.

[j-d-s]

I was hoping we could capture a SB with this extremely young defense. And start a dynasty like the 70s.

I would give it an A on offense
I would give a C on Defense
Avgeraging out at B-

I think offense is B at best. Why? Because they repeatedly failed to continuosly put up points like an elite offense is supposed to. Look at the Falcons, Saints or Patriots how much points they score every single game. Given our talent we should score like them, but we don't. With this offense we should not score less than 20 points in any game, ever. Maybe except for one traditional Tomlin-style loss to a really bad team.

I could have accepted it if we lost to the Pats by 35-38. Because that is the least we have to expect from our offense if we want to make it to the Super Bowl in the next years.

[zulater]

I think offense is B at best. Why? Because they repeatedly failed to continuosly put up points like an elite offense is supposed to. Look at the Falcons, Saints or Patriots how much points they score every single game. Given our talent we should score like them, but we don't. With this offense we should not score less than 20 points in any game, ever. Maybe except for one traditional Tomlin-style loss to a really bad team.

I could have accepted it if we lost to the Pats by 35-38. Because that is the least we have to expect from our offense if we want to make it to the Super Bowl in the next years.

I think the numbers bear out that Martavis Bryant jump started this offense to the tune of an extra 7 points a game when he starts and plays the full game. The point being is we were essentially a one receiver team this year. Don't get me wrong Eli Rogers showed he's a keeper, but not so much that he's drawing coverage away from 84 or getting safeties out of the box to aid the running game. Be it Bryant or a free agent or a high draft pick ( even a top tier tight end) we need another receiver that defenses fear to really get this offense going.

[86WARD]

So to put it into 4 separate Marking periods based on the schedule for the regular season:

First - B
Second - D
Third - B
Fourth - A

Playoffs got progressively worse. A for the Dolphins game, C for the Chiefs and F for the Patriots game.

[Born2Steel]

On a 1-10 rating scale, with 1 being pathetic and 10 being SB champs, I'll rate this season a solid 8. We learned a lot this season. Suspensions, injuries, rookie mistakes/growing pains, losing to the Ravens, allowing the Browns to score points, hitting mid season with a lowly 4-5 record all led to substantial growth. We were not ready for greatness. Not yet. Maybe a good thing long term? Keep the fire in the belly, the focus, give all those young guns a sampling taste of what true success can be like. Make them want it more next season.