Mark Madden: Steelers need to evaluate themselves realistically for a change

This year marks the third in four that the Steelers will miss the playoffs, barring an upset by Jacksonville.

In those seasons, they’ve won eight, 12, eight and nine games. The Steelers haven’t reaped the benefit of winning, say, four games. Finish middle, draft middle, stay middle.

It’s difficult to evaluate the Steelers’ 2021 campaign.

Two prominent players provide microcosms.

At 39, Ben Roethlisberger didn’t look the part.

His mobility was nonexistent, the damage thereof emphasized by playing behind the worst offensive line in team history. Roethlisberger threw short (and short of the sticks) constantly, rarely going long or using the middle of the field. Roethlisberger’s stats are below average but not horrific (although his yards per attempt is 6.2, the lowest of his career).

But Roethlisberger overcame the line, an underachieving group of receivers and an unqualified offensive coordinator to somehow win eight games, perhaps nine. That’s better than the Steelers’ talent dictated.

Roethlisberger manufactured five fourth-quarter comebacks, a career high. You could argue Roethlisberger was team MVP, an honor he inexplicably has won just once during his 18-year tenure. (Actually, there is an explanation.)

But T.J. Watt got team MVP for the third season in a row.

Watt’s stats are overwhelming. He is one sack away from tying the NFL’s single-season record.

But because of injury, Watt missed two games, left early during three others and was ineffective in two more. He made little impact in seven of the Steelers’ 16 games to date.

Perhaps that’s how your team MVP has a record-setting year and you still miss the postseason.

You don’t pay for stats. It’s not a fantasy league. The highest-compensated athletes should contribute the most when it comes to winning games. The Steelers didn’t win enough.

Avoiding a losing season — did you know coach Mike Tomlin has never had one? — may prevent ownership and management from seeing the Steelers as they really are: a below-average team. As previously noted in this space, these Steelers didn’t beat a good team playing a good game.

If the Steelers were close to being a Super Bowl team, it might make sense to bring in an established veteran quarterback. Depending on the money, one might even join the Steelers out of trust in Tomlin.

But the Steelers aren’t remotely close. Teams that miss the playoffs three times in four seasons rarely are.

After this season, the Steelers will have won three playoff games in 11 years despite having a Hall of Fame quarterback. (Most of the blame, or even very much of it, should not be placed on Roethlisberger.) The best the Steelers did in that span was a lopsided loss to New England in the AFC championship game that followed that 2016 season.

This isn’t about tweaking. This is about, at long last, rebuilding.

But the Steelers won’t see it that way. (Mason Rudolph will be the starting quarterback regardless.)

In terms of personnel, the Steelers need to first fix their offensive and defensive lines. Make do with Rudolph till that’s done, then draft your long-term replacement at QB. (That offers no guarantees. It was 21 years between Terry Bradshaw and Roethlisberger.)

But what the Steelers need to do most is look at themselves realistically.

They’ve never been good at doing that.