Professional Football Researchers Association Forum

No Bradshaw, no Franco, no Blount

They had excellent wins, baffling losses, a bunch of good players, and yet barely won a weak AFC Central

But they were a serendipitous freak play in Indianapolis from being a 10-win team in basically what amounted to be the Steel Curtain’s last breath of glory (the next time PIT made the playoffs were a completely different team)

For years I thought this was an aging team yet outside of like 5-6 players were actually one of the younger teams in football

What do you make of this PIT squad?

Team still had great leadership from Donnie Shell and John Stallworth. Merriwhether and Lipps had big years as well despite erratic QB play. Tom Moore ran a tough but pedestrian offense that relied on cohesive offensive line play. How they beat Denver at Mile High in postseason is anyones guess, but Tony Dungy's defense gave John Elway fits ...

A strange year that seemed to be about Dan Marino and the Dolphins beating them twice after not being drafted by the Steelers the year before. To this day, I believe had the Steelers drafted him, Noll would have gotten a fifth SB ring ...

Brian wolf wrote: ↑Sat Jun 06, 2026 2:04 pm Team still had great leadership from Donnie Shell and John Stallworth. Merriwhether and Lipps had big years as well despite erratic QB play. Tom Moore ran a tough but pedestrian offense that relied on cohesive offensive line play. How they beat Denver at Mile High in postseason is anyones guess, but Tony Dungy's defense gave John Elway fits ...

A strange year that seemed to be about Dan Marino and the Dolphins beating them twice after not being drafted by the Steelers the year before. To this day, I believe had the Steelers drafted him, Noll would have gotten a fifth SB ring ...

So you would take the 1984 Steelers with Dan Marino at quarterback over the 49ers who won it all that year?

As for Marino, had he been on the Steelers in the 90’s, they may have had a shot at winning it all with him then in place of Neil O’Donnell. In particular in 1995.

Marino with the Steelers probably wouldnt have won it all in 83 or 84 but I feel the Steelers would have won a SB by 1991. With Marino I feel they could have beaten any NFC team.

#8 in offense, #5 in defense! This team has been brought up here before and I commented recently. Statistically, they were better than 13-3 Denver so was that divisional rounder really an upset?

Malone did have his moments but a better QB was, indeed, needed for they to finish at 11-5, or even 12-4, as they maybe "should have". A healthy Bradshaw, even though he would be 36, would have done the trick. Of course Marino! Of course! But I opined here numerous times that a simple Phil Simms would have sufficed.

Even with Malone, the 'Burgh were keeping up with Miami in that AFCCG at first - his bomb to Stallworth to make it Pittsburgh 14, Miami 10. But it simply wasn't enough. For Mark to do that the entire game, keeping up with Dan, asking way too much.

Marino with us (and Dan NOT being in Miami)? We win the AFC! Marino IN Miami, but we have a healthy Terry or a Phil Simms? Maybe Miami tops us anyway, but either of the two should make it an exciting track meet at least into the 4th Q!

And Noll vs Walsh at Stanford, with either of the three QBs suggested starting with Dan? You can't, really, hate the Emperor's chances. You either already think Noll is the better of both HCs. Or its a tie but you use his de facto 'Best-of-Three' series between both as the easy tie-breaker. In each of the three games between them, San Fran had the better team; and look how it turned out. I know it was just a regular season game, but Malone DID start in that '84 win at Candlestick. Yes, it was controversial but simply they playing them as close as they did...

They were SO inconsistent! Beating the big teams they beat but losing to who they actually lost to? A better QB may have fended off that inconsistency.

For years I thought this was an aging team yet outside of like 5-6 players were actually one of the younger teams in football

They did have somewhat of a youth movement that year. Franco had just went to Seattle, and they already lost Bradshaw, Swann, Ham, Blount, etc... They were replaced by youth (Rich Erenberg, Weegie Thompson, Eric Williams, Daryl Nelson, Chris Kolodjeski, etc...). Unfortunately, a lot of those young players didn't have a lot of staying power. The Steelers really didn't draft well again until 1987, when they got Woodson, Lloyd, and Hardware.

Maybe that's why I regard 1989 as a better team. They had youth that had a future. The 1984 team really didn't, and they had a QB that should have been on NFL Top 10 QB Teases.

7DnBrnc53 wrote: ↑Mon Jun 08, 2026 7:46 pm They had a QB that should have been on NFL Top 10 QB Teases.

I presume you mean Mark Malone.

Part of that is that the quarterback had to have looked like he had the potential to be a franchise quarterback before not panning out. (their number one was Scott Mitchell, but in my opinion Jeff George who they had fourth is the quarterback that I think of most when that term comes to mind)

Mark Malone certainly didn’t pan out, but was he ever viewed as a future franchise quarterback by Steeler fans in the 80’s?

As for the ‘84 team, I’d say it was a decent one, but they got beaten hard by Miami, and as you said they didn’t have much of a future with the core they had at the time due to age and bad drafting.

SeahawkFever wrote: ↑Tue Jun 09, 2026 3:41 pm

7DnBrnc53 wrote: ↑Mon Jun 08, 2026 7:46 pm They had a QB that should have been on NFL Top 10 QB Teases.

I presume you mean Mark Malone.

Part of that is that the quarterback had to have looked like he had the potential to be a franchise quarterback before not panning out. (their number one was Scott Mitchell, but in my opinion Jeff George who they had fourth is the quarterback that I think of most when that term comes to mind)

Mark Malone certainly didn’t pan out, but was he ever viewed as a future franchise quarterback by Steeler fans in the 80’s?

As for the ‘84 team, I’d say it was a decent one, but they got beaten hard by Miami, and as you said they didn’t have much of a future with the core they had at the time due to age and bad drafting.

Any QB drafted in the first round is considered a franchise QB but The Steelers still believed in Bradshaw and had he not hurt his elbow in 1983, they could have continued to keep Malone on the bench which had to factor in not drafting Marino, but the Steelers also werent ready to give up on Malone. Still ... hard to pass up a backyard hero that would have fell in their lap. Noll felt that Marino needed to mature more away from Pittsburgh, I guess?

Brian wolf wrote: ↑Tue Jun 09, 2026 5:58 pm

SeahawkFever wrote: ↑Tue Jun 09, 2026 3:41 pm

7DnBrnc53 wrote: ↑Mon Jun 08, 2026 7:46 pm They had a QB that should have been on NFL Top 10 QB Teases.

I presume you mean Mark Malone.

Part of that is that the quarterback had to have looked like he had the potential to be a franchise quarterback before not panning out. (their number one was Scott Mitchell, but in my opinion Jeff George who they had fourth is the quarterback that I think of most when that term comes to mind)

Mark Malone certainly didn’t pan out, but was he ever viewed as a future franchise quarterback by Steeler fans in the 80’s?

As for the ‘84 team, I’d say it was a decent one, but they got beaten hard by Miami, and as you said they didn’t have much of a future with the core they had at the time due to age and bad drafting.

Any QB drafted in the first round is considered a franchise QB but The Steelers still believed in Bradshaw and had he not hurt his elbow in 1983, they could have continued to keep Malone on the bench which had to factor in not drafting Marino, but the Steelers also werent ready to give up on Malone. Still ... hard to pass up a backyard hero that would have fell in their lap. Noll felt that Marino needed to mature more away from Pittsburgh, I guess?

It’s fair to say that a quarterback prospect that goes in the first round is seen as a potential franchise quarterback by the front office of that team.

But in the Quarterback Tease episode, part of it was not necessarily that they were all highly regarded prospects (ex: Vince Ferragamo wasn’t a first round pick, and Elvis Grbac who they had at #2 was an 8th round pick), it’s more so that (in the view of the people who made the list; which may have had some questionable selections) the quarterbacks actually showed a few flashes of play early on that made fans think they had a budding franchise quarterback on their team only for that player to not pan out long term.

Did Malone early in his career have good play that made fans at the time say “this is the guy”?

I’ve also heard that the GM of Pittsburgh wanted to repeat the formula that they did in the 70’s, which is why they drafted Gabe Rivera. (a guy who they thought could have been a franchise defensive tackle)

To be fair to Rivera, we likely didn’t see what he could’ve become as his career was very short due to the car accident but not drafting Marino is viewed as a huge missed opportunity for Pittsburgh and I’m sure it still would have been seen as that regardless.

Did Malone early in his career have good play that made fans at the time say “this is the guy”?

Well, besides the upset win over Denver, he did throw for five TD's on opening day 1985 against the Colts. At that point, Steeler fans may have felt that they had the guy. Not for long.