Steelers President Art Rooney II Talks Bruce Arians In Exclusive Interview
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- KDKA's Bob Pompeani met with Steelers President Art Rooney II in his first TV interview since the season ended.
Every NFL off-season features change. The degree of change is always the question.
Bruce Arians has been with the Steelers since 2004. He was named offensive coordinator in 2007.
Arians instituted a passing game that the Steelers have used the last five years.
Two years ago, the Steelers considered a change at his position, but Arians was retained with the help of Ben Roethlisberger.
Now the speculation continues about his future.
Bob Pompeani: "Do you want Bruce Arians back as an offensive coordinator?"
Art Rooney II: "Well, that's really Mike's decision, I mean, and that's the process Mike's involved in right now is talking to all of the coaches about where they are and where they are with their contracts, so I think that's something - I'll leave it to those guys to kind of work out where we're going on that front."
With Arians as offensive coordinator, the Steelers have gone to two Super Bowls, winning one of them.
This season, they had two 1,000-yard receivers and a 4,000-yard quarterback, but the offense as a whole dipped to 21st in the league in points scored.
"There's no question the game has changed," Rooney said. "The rules allow a lot more in terms of helping the passing game than they ever had, so you have to take advantage of that."
"I think the perfect situation is to be able to do both well," he continued. "Pass and run."
Which leads back to what happens to Arians. Clearly, he and Roethlisberger have a tight relationship – one that critics say gives too much control to the quarterback.
Pompeani: "Ben and Bruce seem to have a good [relationship]. Some would say it's too much of a father-son sort of a relationship as opposed to boss-employer relationship. How do you view that?"
Rooney: "Well, I think first you have to look at the success that they've had. With Bruce and Ben, we've had a pretty good run here, so I'm not sure that I would complain too much about what the relationship has been and it's been a productive one and that's the key part of the puzzle."
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