The Pittsburgh Steelers were experiencing one of the greatest runs of success in football a month ago—they were accomplishing more with fewer resources. The Steelers had a 7-4 record going into Week 13, despite having a restricted (read: terrible) quarterback in Kenny Pickett, an awful offensive coach who had recently been dismissed, and a defense that gave up yards in large quantities. Despite losing the yardage differential in every game, the squad has already become the first in league history to sit above 500 through nine or more games. Both the Dec. 3 game and the following week’s matchup with the New England Patriots, who also had just two victories to their record, would take place at home against the 2-10 Arizona Cardinals. In spite of Pittsburgh’s shortcomings, both opponents should have been rather easy pickings for a club headed for the playoffs; yet, the Steelers created additional history by being the first winning team to lose a straight-up series against teams eight games below.500. Last Saturday, the Indianapolis Colts, who had allowed the Steelers to take an early 13-0 lead before scoring 27 straight points, suffered yet another defeat. At 7-7 right now, head coach Mike Tomlin’s club has little chance of qualifying for the AFC playoffs.

Can the downfall of a football club be both predictable and unexpected at the same time? Yes, the Steelers responded. No one who was paying attention believed that the Steelers’ formula—being outplayed for most of the game but managing to win—could continue. (At least one team member stated as much while the recorders were running.) However, the Steelers’ performance in the last three games has been more than just a return to reality. Rather, there has been an unprecedented decline that accomplishes two goals: First of all, it establishes a new benchmark for the variety of ways a team might disintegrate simultaneously. And second, it takes a proud team with six Super Bowls remaining to admit that its tried-and-true model isn’t working.

The demise of the Steelers is a case study. It’s possible that they won’t learn from it, or that they will. However, the chaos they’ve caused may be ignored by everyone on the planet. since it is astounding. Of course, this has sparked a once-sidebar argument about whether the Steelers should fire their generally successful 17-year head coach, Mike Tomlin. But there’s wreckage to sort through in order to determine whether the Steelers should make that extreme move.

The Steelers’ on-field issues are not exclusive to them; they have many facets. They chose second-year player Pickett in the first round out of the nearby University of Pittsburgh, and he is among the worst quarterbacks in the NFL. Although Pickett has performed horribly, he has also collaborated with Matt Canada, an incompetent offensive coordinator, for practically his whole career. A week prior to the start of this losing streak, the Steelers dismissed Canada, but their two appointed assistants haven’t fared much better. (The only encouraging thing was that the Steelers scored 400 yards in their first game back from Canada, ending a 58-game run in which no team had previously accomplished that feat in the NFL.)

Pickett suffered an injury during the Arizona loss. After the most recent loss to Indianapolis, his backup, former No. 2 overall draft pick Mitchell Trubisky, was benched due to his poor play. Throughout the league, 2023 has been a year of solid backup play, with a variety of journeymen and late-round draft picks rising to keep their teams competitive. The Cleveland Browns, who play in the AFC North opposite the Pittsburgh Steelers, have won games with players like rookie Dorian Thompson-Robinson, selected in the fifth round, and Joe Flacco, a former Baltimore Raven who was out of football but is now 2-1 with Cleveland. Jake Browning, who was undrafted in 2019 and has never played in an NFL game, has a 3-1 record for the Cincinnati Bengals.

The Steelers lack an inventive offensive strategy and a demonstrable ability to develop offensive talent, which is why none of their quarterbacks have produced anything of the kind. The group has also done a terrible job of sharing chances. There are two running backs in Pittsburgh. Last year, Jaylen Warren, the talented one, signed as an undrafted free agent. In 2021, Najee Harris—the bad guy—was selected in the first round. Because benching Harris would officially prove that choosing him was a waste, the Steelers frequently give Harris the ball. The Steelers have also experienced some unfortunate breaks, just like any other club. Their middle defense has been severely damaged by injuries, losing the majority of their safeties and inside linebackers. Another safety was suspended for the remainder of the year after he was found to have made too many unlawful hits.

Some teams manage their academic challenges and learn from them. Some contribute to the NFL’s reputation as a dominant force in entertainment by turning it into a soap opera. The latter is what the Steelers have obediently done all season. There was once a tremendous locker-room shouting confrontation between a top safety and a receiver that made headlines throughout the entire league. Diontae Johnson, the same receiver, once set off a full news cycle by extravagantly celebrating a pointless score at the conclusion of a game. Another instance saw him observing helplessly as the opposition recovered a fumble next to him and made off with it. (Johnson expressed regret the next week.)

Johnson hasn’t even been the Steelers’ main source of wideout trouble, for whatever reason. George Pickens, the Georgia sophomore target, has been that. Pickens is a gifted deep threat, but he hasn’t received enough playing time due to a variety of factors, including bad game plans from opponents, his own inability to get open, and the incompetence of his quarterbacks. It doesn’t help that Pickens pouts openly every week in response to his lack of output. He refused to block running back Warren during the Indianapolis defeat, moving aside and allowing Warren to be tackled just short of a touchdown. Pickens stated he was attempting to prevent an injury and that the criticism was coming from non-football players when reporters questioned him about it. Subsequently, Tomlin and several of his football-playing teammates joined in. Warren declared, “I would have blocked for him if I was in that position.” It’s amazing how worn out Pickens’ teammates must be for them to publicly and clearly criticize him like this.

Pickens will play on Saturday against the Bengals, Tomlin informed reporters. It was an accomplishment in and of itself that this debate even existed at all—that it was fair to wonder if the Steelers would bench one of their two gifted wide receivers in a game they had to win because he had grown so annoying. Linebacker T.J. Watt, the team’s finest player, has reportedly stated that certain Steelers players don’t put in a lot of practice. Tomlin hasn’t been able to connect with his players through anything he has tried.

All of these problems indicate that there is a fundamental flaw with the Steelers. A quarterback plays too badly? Even with longtime starting quarterback Ben Roethlisberger’s injury, the Steelers were able to overcome it in the past. It was believed that whoever filled in for a game or two would do enough to keep the train running when the Steelers were good. Famous people disturbing the locker room? Over the years, the Steelers have had several of them. When Tomlin led teams in the late 2010s that included high-maintenance players like quarterback Ben Roethlisberger, wide receiver Antonio Brown, running back Le’Veon Bell, and notoriously prickly offensive specialist Todd Haley on the same team, he demonstrated qualities deserving of a Nobel Peace Prize. The Steelers had some of the top offenses in the league and kept most of their disagreements to a minimum so that they remained hidden from the public.