With the superbowl mercilessly ending this past season last week, we can now turn our attention to free agency and the NFL draft in the next coming months. How in god's name can a team that was 6-2 facing joke teams like the Chiefs, Raiders, Browns, end up 6-7 and out of the playoffs?

This team is quietly treading into a slippery slope area and a big offseason is needed. The defense is aging and not getting major contributions from defensive players guys in the last 2 drafts.

The offense still can't run the ball and still can't protect the QB.

What will the Steelers try to do? What are the areas they need to improve on. Who should they keep? Who needs to go?

Let's take a look at the whole shebang, starting with the QBs. Nestled with in these ranting of a mad man, are all my final player grades for this season. Jump it.

I've tried to grade players on my previous expectations for them this coming season. I average general expectations I have for the player coming into the season vs. actual (as if someone has a bad year or if they are about to decline, bust out, etc.), first 8 games of regular season play, and finally, the last 8 games of regular season play. Taking these 3 into account, I've averaged the scorers based on (F = 0, A+ =12) scale and an expectation scale was based on the following: 0- utter failure, 6- met expectations and 12-well beyond. Obviously, this is not a science and should be refined more and mostly just a way, no matter how subjective, to further a point or discussion. Still though, this seems to give a decent enough look at a player's performance throughout the season.

QBs:

Ben Roethlisberger - 10/9/10 => A-

Career highs all round for #7. 100 plus QB ratings. Franchise passing records. A great year if you look at things on paper. Except looking at the bottom line, is far too narrow. Overall, Ben is the guy I want to lead this football team. He is becoming a better QB but he needs to work on the finer things also. Hitting the check downs, taking less risks and shots. Running around playing backyard football. All those things need to be toned down due to injury and just bone headedness. Also known is that the bar is now set high and with this new wide open passing attack, crap that took place @ Cleveland for instance can't be tolerated. Moreover, 5 game losing streaks need to be stopped by your leaders and best players. Especially, coming from the highest paid player on the team.

Charlie Batch - 6/inc/4 => D+

It's not Batch is bad but more so that the man is too injury prone to continue to last in this role. Once again, the Chuckster had his season cut short due to injury - a theme that's becoming all too common for him. With the crappy o-line and a reckless QB in front of him, the Steelers need a better backup that they can count on. Like clockwork, Ben will miss the certain games next year as well. It would be good to have another veteran in there to bring both Batch and Ben along and be a good plan B in case of injury. However, I feel the Steelers don't agree with me and will likely bring back Batch as he is a good team guy, knows the playbook and is relatively cheap.

Dennis Dixon  - 8/Inc/8 => B

I like Dixon in his current role. This was his first healthy year and a time he could continue to learn the offense and get his knee healthy. Still, good to keep Dixon involved as #3 and he showed more then enough in the Sunday Night game @ BAWLMORE to give signs that he could be a competent backup in the league going forward once Batch retires. Would be good if we could  Dixon get some game snaps next year during blow out games but we've hadn't been in one in ages it seems.

Next season's outlook:

We'll likely see the same guys involved once again. No matter how nice it would be to add a Leftwich back into the mix, this team has bigger holes that need to be addressed. At this point and time and with limited cap room, QB is not the position that needs those resources.

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