On January 6th, 2012 a fire broke out in the home of Pittsburgh Steelers’ running backs’ coach Kirby Wilson. So bad were Wilson’s injuries as a result of the fire that he needed to be airlifted to UPMC. Two days later, the Steelers were upset by Tim Tebow and the Denver Broncos in the AFC Wild-Card game.
As the offseason began, Wilson began his struggle back from his injuries, many of which were burn-related. The Steelers meanwhile announced the ‘retirement’ of offensive coordinator Bruce Arians and began their search for a new coordinator.
While I was in favor of Arians moving on, Todd Haley would not have been my pick. I don’t care what anyone tells me, I don’t believe he was Mike Tomlin’s pick either.
I have no inside information, but I will always believe that Mike Tomlin was prepared to make Kirby Wilson the next offensive coordinator of the Steelers. I’m not suggesting Wilson would have been a roaring success as the play-caller, but look where this team is now. Would it have been worse?
Wouldn’t you be curious to see where this team would be, depth and O-line issues notwithstanding, had Kirby Wilson be available to get his shot at the job?
Marc Uhlmann writes for and co-owns www.steelcityblitz.com. Follow him on Twitter @steeldad and follow the website at @SCBlitz. He can be heard Mondays on Trib-Live Radio at 4pm ET talking Steelers.
2 comments
I wasn’t crazy about the hiring of Todd Haley, either, and, in fact, groaned audibly when I heard the news.
He seemed to be the antithesis of what the Steelers were trying to accomplish or, at least, what some of us were hoping they were trying to accomplish..
So far, well, it’s just not working.
The Steelers had brought in NY Giants quarterbacks coach Mike Sullivan for at least one interview fresh off the Giants Super Bowl victory. Considering the success Sullivan had with Eli Manning, along with New York’s strong running game and balanced offense that year, I thought at the time he would have been a good choice.
Haley got the job, of course, and Sullivan ended up in Tampa Bay. The Bucs have been abysmal on offense, of course, and it’s tough to say whether Sullivan would have done any better in Pittsburgh (with Ben Roethlisberger as quarterback and Mike Tomlin as head coach) than he’s done in Tampa (with Josh Freeman as quarterback and Greg Schiano as head coach). Two vastly different organizations.
Be that as it may, Todd Haley won’t be going anywhere during the 2013 season.
This is a really good comment here Bern. Would Sullivan have been better? Who knows? You make the argument about his ‘success’ in TB.