A storm could be brewing in Pittsburgh. At the very least, clouds are forming on the horizon as new offensive coordinator Todd Haley comes into contact with the expectations and hopes of veteran starting quarterback Ben Roethlisberger. While both men deserve the chance to be heard and will likely find an agreement somewhere in the tension of both sides, things could get ugly if one decides to be less-than-amiable about the changes coming in the Steelers offense.
As Todd Haley was officially announced as the new OC under Mike Tomlin, Roethlisberger also gave words of his own on what he hopes.
“I’ve gotten a lot of calls and texts and emails from people around the league, both good and bad about him,’’ ”http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12040/1209184-100.stm#ixzz1luzSm1Z0" target="new">Roethlisberger said during an interview with the Post-Gazette. “Everybody has an opinion, as we all know, and they’re letting me know what their interaction with him was — good, bad and indifferent. I’ve heard a lot of things and I’m looking forward to meeting him and forming my own opinion.”
“It would probably be easy for him to do,” Roethlisberger said about Haley possibly choosing to stick with his offense. "I don’t know if it would be easy for us to learn it. We’re so young on offense and the most talented room in this whole building is probably wide receiver, no disrespect to anyone else. And they’re also really young. They’re still the tip of the iceberg in this offense and they did as well as they did last year. And they’re just getting to the point that ‘OK, this makes sense to me.’
“That was my biggest talking point to Mike and those guys — I would hate to just throw everything out and start over because I feel it would set us back two or three years because these guys are just starting to get it. I hope we don’t have to start over and if we do, you know what, here we go. Let’s do it. We’ll do it. We’re not going to complain about it. But I would hate to have to set certain guys back who are doing so well right now.”
If anything, Haley can definitely make the young receivers better after his work with Steve Breaston, Dwayne Bowe, Larry Fitzgerald and Anquan Boldin over the last few years. He just needs to be given a chance. However, Roethlisberger has definitely brought enough rings to Pittsburgh to be heard as well and Haley will likely bend but not break in hopes to build a bridge to his new quarterback.