Kovacevic: Steelers' (mis)management doesn't deserve playoff berth

BALTIMORE -- By sundown on this Sunday, there'll be only sadness and disappointment.

This week won't be last week. Not for the Steelers. Not for Ben Roethlisberger. Even for their opponent, there's no optimal outcome in sight.

Not unless anyone's seriously counting on this clown show to come through:

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Trevor Lawrence and the Jaguars.

Nah. Didn't think so.

Kickoff's at 1:02 p.m. inside M&T Bank Stadium and, roughly three hours later, win or lose, sizzle or stink, it'll be all the way over for everyone involved. The Steelers and Ravens will both be out of the playoffs, Trevor Lawrence and the Jaguars will have been trampled by Jonathan Taylor and the Colts, and that'll be that.

And you know, being candid, I'm kinda OK with it.

There'll soon be tons of time for post mortem, so I'll shelve this stuff in a moment. But I do feel it's worth stressing, following the storybook scene this past Monday back home and in advance of whatever might unfold here today, that the 2021 effort by the Steelers' management and coaching staff -- from Art Rooney II, Kevin Colbert and Mike Tomlin on down -- deserves an F grade. If only for their grotesque bungling of the offensive line. Because, unlike other shortcomings at other positions, this one was by design. Adrian Klemm was the bad coach they chose. Kendrick Green was the bad center they drafted ... even though he'd been a college guard. Dan Moore was the bad left tackle who shouldn't have been forced to start as a rookie. Kevin Dotson, Trai Turner, Chuks Okorafor ... all of it ended up as everyone outside South Water Street knew it would.

Rewarding that decision-making process in any form, much less some miraculous, last-minute playoff appearance, could only bring more bad. And it's well past time for change to that process, as well as some of the people behind it.

• If T.J. Watt isn't the NFL's Defensive Player of the Year, the award will become worthless.

And that's as close as I can come to offering an actual opinion on the subject. It's become cold, hard fact.

• In preemptively raining on any possible parade today, as I did above, I don't intend at all to diminish the NFL record for sacks that T.J. will -- and he will -- take from Michael Strahan by day's end. And one of the best subtexts will be that he's played in only 12 complete games to date, so no one will ever be able to cite the expanded 17-game schedule as an asterisk.

Make no mistake: It'll mark one of the truly great individual achievements in franchise history. And off the top of my head, to be honest, I'm hard-pressed to think of one greater.

• As deserving of DPOY as T.J. is, Cam Heyward's exactly that deserving of All-Pro status. And not the second team, either, as he was last season, but first team, as in 2017 and 2019. Particularly because he had to excel without Stephon Tuitt and Tyson Alualu, this has been the finest season of his career. 

• I'm expecting a much more fluid Ben Roethlisberger today than last week. Pressure's off, at least from the personal standpoint. He and everyone around him clearly treated that game as his last, and that seemed appropriate. That's the one that would've been the biggest shame had it ended in some sad scene, right there in front of the home fans, not to mention family and friends.

This one, theoretically, can just be fun. Enjoying the moment and all that.

• Then again, he'll still be working off a Matt Canada playbook, behind that awful line, and throwing to receivers who can't gain separation or catch footballs, so never mind.

• The very best thing anyone will read about Ben's career finale was written for, of all places, Ravens.com. It's an absolute must.

• James Washington going on the COVID list yesterday means his time with the Steelers is done. No chance he'll want to come back and, more important, no chance the team would want him back.

This is a shame. Great head on his shoulders. Occasionally flashed big-play ability. But when I'm talking about failing to gain separation, he's atop the list. He'd run routes as if he were the one covering the DB, not the other way around.

• Moore's doubtful for today with an ankle injury. If Joe Haeg winds up replacing him at left tackle and out-performing him, I won't be surprised. Any more than I was when J.C. Hassenauer hugely out-performed Green at center. But then, this is what happens when the head coach anoints rookie starters rather than making them earn their way.

• Melvin Ingram made a game-changing play late in the Chiefs' victory yesterday in Denver, forcing a fumble for Nick Bolton's scoop-and-score. 

Good for him. No one blocked him at all, but hey, good for him. He's still got to produce the pop.

That said, there's been no sillier ongoing dialogue through Steelers Nation all season than the endless pining for Ingram. He was a No. 3 outside linebacker in Pittsburgh, the No. 2 guy's far better, and the No. 3 wanted out. So, he was sent out. And in the interim, the No. 3 options for the Steelers, notably Derrek Tuszka -- two sacks and a forced fumble in his past three games -- have been more than sufficient.

Heck, Ingram's got one sack and one forced fumble all season for Kansas City.

My goodness, let it go. There's so much legit cause for criticism with this management. This ain't it.

• In case anyone thought my 'clown show' line earlier was a cheap shot:

• Ultimate wish for this one is that Najee Harris keeps running. Maybe the biggest benefit of that 188-yard breakout against the Browns is that, for the first time all season, he was seeing holes he could hit, then did so. I realize that'll sound overly simplistic, but I'd begun sensing a trend beforehand where he'd look so surprised when there was an actual hole that he'd simply turn into traffic, as if seeking out contact.

He deserves to run into the offseason. Talk about a rookie earning one's way.

• Thanks, as always, for reading. And above-and-beyond thanks for the overwhelming response to our announcement over the weekend about opening a new headquarters/shop Downtown. It's been quite the 48 hours, and Dali and I are as grateful as we are excited.