How former Steelers Brown, Bell, and Bruce all snuck into this year’s Super Bowl
What did the Steelers do wrong?
That’s all I’m reading as Monday morning quarterbacks crept out of their slumbers following Sunday’s Conference Championship victories by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Kansas City Chiefs.
By virtue of those wins, the Buccaneers and Chiefs are headed to Tampa to play in Super Bowl LV… but what does that have to do with the Steelers?
Nothing, in reality. By virtue of those wins, a few former associates of the Pittsburgh Steelers are headed to the big game this Sunday. However, there’s a segment of casual fans with rosy and forgetful memories who seem to have forgotten how Bruce Arians and Antonio Brown landed in Tampa, and how Le’Veon Bell found his way to K.C.
None of this should reflect poorly on the Steelers, yet, somehow, I’m here having to defend the organization again in what is largely a nothing burger, as each of the above names have had plenty of failures since they’ve left Pittsburgh.
Bruce Arians
Covered largely in an article I wrote recently, Arians left the Steelers under conspicuous terms only to resurface in Indianapolis and Arizona – winning not one, but two AP NFL Coach of the Year awards for his efforts.
Lost in the shuffle are how Arians quarterbacks are abused in his system.
Ben Roethlisberger had been sacked more in the five seasons with Arians as the Steelers offensive coordinator than he has in the nine seasons since Arians left.
Andrew Luck threw more picks in one season under Arians than he ever had otherwise. Jameis Winston joined a similar club as well.
All of the quarterbacks mentioned above, along with Carson Palmer, were near the top of being the most-sacked passers in the league in each season Bruce Arians was involved with their respective teams.
Arians is now on his third team since leaving Pittsburgh following a collapse to Tim Tebow in the 2011 playoffs. Since leaving, he’s posted a 67-44 record, leading his teams to the postseason in four of eight seasons, along with three regular season finishes at .500 or lower.
Prior to 2020, Arians had only a single playoff win on his resume: an overtime victory over the Green Bay Packers in the 2015 Divisional Round aided by a three-play, 80-yard drive capped off by a Larry Fitzgerald 75-yard catch-and-run, and 5-yard Fitzgerald pitch-and-catch touchdown.
The Cardinals would be walloped by the Panthers 49-15 one week later in the NFC Championship.
(By comparison to Mike Tomlin, that doesn’t seem so bad now, does it?)
Entering their November bye week this season, Tampa Bay stood at a 7-5 record. Tension rose between Arians’ style of offense and Tom Brady operating it. The coach went on record to say that Brady then took over everything from game planning to selecting plays, both on and off of the field.
In a curious manner, the Bucs ripped off seven consecutive wins and are now in the Super Bowl. The only question is, how much of that was truly of Arians’ doing versus that of one considered to be the greatest quarterback of all-time, appearing in his tenth Super Bowl?
Antonio Brown
The first of two Steelers players highlighted here, neither of which played in Conference Championship games this weekend, is Antonio Brown.
Most Steelers fans forget that Brown quit on the team and not the other way around, walking out of practice ahead of the final week of the 2018 season and subsequently being sat for that game, leaving the stadium at halftime.
Brown demanded a trade, squashing a rumored deal with Buffalo before heading to the Oakland Raiders.
Brown’s Raiders tenure would be short-lived, mostly through insane clips on HBO’s Hard Knocks series where the receiver took jabs at former teammates (mostly Ben Roethlisberger) while getting involved in a helmet scandal with the NFL when his equipment was phased out.
He somehow “burned” his feet and was unable to practice during training camp, but still flamboyantly showed up in a hot air balloon.
He would never play a regular season game for the Raiders, who released him following a “colorful” exchange with General Manager Mike Mayock and Head Coach Jon Gruden. His contract was void as rumblings of violent incidents and sexual misconduct clouded his pro football future after quickly signing on with the New England Patriots.
Brown would appear in exactly one game, catching four passes from Tom Brady for 56 yards and a touchdown. He would be released and was the constant subject of a league suspension as his tweets floated between “retirement” and “comeback”.
“AB” resurfaced during the 2020 season as an option for Brady’s new team in Tampa, as the Bucs were experiencing a number of injuries and setbacks at the wide receiver position. After petitioning the league for reinstatement, Brown appeared in eight games for the Bucs, catching 45 passes for 483 yards and four touchdowns. Brown is fifth on the team in receiving. By comparison, Scott Miller, a sixth-round draft pick in 2019, has more yards on fewer receptions (33) and one fewer touchdown.
However, Brown’s 2020 postseason has been all but a blur.
Brown has been targeted all of six times, catching half of those passes for 59 yards and one touchdown. He’s also run the ball once for 22 yards.
He did not play in the AFC Championship game either.
Note: Most fans have forgotten that Brown has already played in a Super Bowl also. He appeared in Super Bowl XLV with the Pittsburgh Steelers during his 2010 rookie season.
Le’Veon Bell
Bell’s contributions to Kansas City’s success are fewer than that of Brown’s in Tampa.
Why?
For starters, the Chiefs had already appeared in two consecutive AFC title games and are the defending Super Bowl champions.
Bell started his 2020 season out with the New York Jets. Following his fallout in Pittsburgh, which saw the disgruntled running back balk at another franchise tag tender and sit out the entire 2018 season, Bell has failed to regain his previous Pro Bowl form with either of the two teams he’s latched onto since.
Landing the “big contract” he wanted in New York, which arguably cost him in upwards of $20 million compared with the money offered in Pittsburgh, Bell appeared in 15 games in 2019 rushing for 789 yards and three touchdowns.
He appeared in two games with the Jets, rushing 19 times for 74 yards and no scores. Those games were bookmarked by being placed on IR in September, returning in October, and then being released from the Jets following their Week 5 loss to the Cardinals.
Bell was then signed by K.C. to add to their stable of running backs, but he has since disappeared from the field. Appearing in nine games for the Chiefs, Bell has been out-touched by rookie Clyde Edwards-Helaire and fellow RB Darrel Williams. Bell has only carried the ball 63 times for the Chiefs, with QB Patrick Mahomes shockingly having only one less carry during the regular season.
When Edwards-Helaire was ruled out for the Divisional Round game against the Cleveland Browns, Head Coach Andy Reid opted to start Williams over Bell, who would out-touch the latter 13-to-2. (Bell’s two carries? Six yards total.)
Bell was targeted three times in the game with no receptions. He was ruled out of the AFC Championship game with an injury as well.
Final Thoughts
The “one of these guys” gets a ring argument is enough to make my eyes roll back into my head like the WWE’s Undertaker.
As noted above, the contributions, or shall I say, lack of, hardly uphold that Brown or Bell should be excited to have a Super Bowl ring to their resume. With each joining their respective teams midway through their seasons, and having a small or unnoticeable impact for those franchises, a Super Bowl win is nothing more than a participation trophy for those two players.
As for Arians, his rollercoaster ride of a pro coaching career could culminate with riding the coattails of the greatest quarterback to ever play the game.
I can say that somewhat tongue-in-cheek, as the head coach deserves credit for his role in advancing the Bucs to their first Super Bowl in 18 years. Still, one has to wonder if inheriting a situation where a number of star players were already on the Tampa Bay roster prior to Arians’ arrival isn’t somewhat dissimilar to criticism of Mike Tomlin’s initial years in the Steel City.
I’ll leave that piece of meat to chew on for another day, but for all intents and purposes, the Steelers (and especially Ben Roethlisberger) were better off moving on from Arians – and the move was also better for Bruce in the long run as well.
