Willie Colon has belief in the Pittsburgh Steelers.
The former longtime offensive tackle was a part of the last Steelers Super Bowl season in 2008 as the starting right tackle for Ben Roethlisberger. Colon played seven seasons in Pittsburgh (2006-2012), starting all 62 of his appearances while the Steelers while leading the franchise to four playoff appearances and two Super Bowl appearances.
Fast forward to now, and the Steelers are playing winning football, going 4-2 in their first six games and coming off a huge overtime comeback win over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Despite trailing 16-3 at one point, Aaron Rodgers and the Steelers came back and won in overtime. That's a week after the Steelers pulled off a huge win over the Indianapolis Colts.
Colon detailed why the Steelers could potentially make a Super Bowl run along with why the franchise will never embrace a true rebuild given the history of the franchise and the fact that the team has had only four head coaches since 1969.
"I think it's weird because I think if you started the season, a lot of people were taken back to the fact that the roster remained old, but they kept 11 rookies," said Colon in a one-on-one interview. "I think the Steeler way is they don't believe in a true rebuild. They don't believe in breaking it up and busting it up, because a lot of teams don't come back from that. This is their way of rebuilding as they grow, and they still have a lot of prominent figures in the locker room: T.J. Watt, Cam Hayward, Jalen Ramsey, these were guys who played a lot of ball at a high level, and so they're there to teach the younger generation of Steelers that's currently in there, like Germie Bernard and Troy Fautanu, and on and on."
"All at the same time, they have a 43-year-old quarterback who at some point, believed that he could win a Super Bowl," Colon continued. "With all that said, man, the Steelers are who the Steelers are going to be. They're going to win dirty. They're going to win scrappy. I think the win against the Bucs proved that, where they were pretty much down the whole damn game in the fourth game. In the fourth quarter, they were able to rally back and win the game in overtime."
Entering their Week 7 matchup in France against the New Orleans Saints, the Steelers are tied atop the AFC North with the Baltimore Ravens and Cleveland Browns. It's worth noting that Pittsburgh are the defending division champs and have been to the playoffs in nine of the past 12 seasons. However, they've been unable to win a playoff game since the 2016 season.
Colon hopes that the addition of Mike McCarthy as the head coach -- he previously won a Super Bowl with Rodgers in Green Bay -- can catapult the franchise over the hump into winning a Super Bowl. Colon was there in Pittsburgh they made the transition from longtime head coach, Bill Cowher, to Mike Tomlin in 2007.
"I feel when you have a guy like Mike McCarthy, the son of Pittsburgh, who has comes from has a winning resume, he understands the weight of what it means to be a Steeler head coach," said Colon. "He's only the fourth head coach in Steeler history. So now he's trying to start a new path at the same time, try not to lose some of the substance that Mike Tomlin left behind him. And Mike Tomlin did the same thing when he had Bill Cowher, right? And so I was privy to see the transition from Bill Cowher to Mike Tomlin, how hard it was for Mike Tomlin because he was a young head coach.
"He was awarded this kind of this Super Bowl outfit, and it's easy to I don't say build one, but it's harder to manage one because of the egos and everything that comes with it, and still win," Colon continued. "And he was able to do so. So now Mike McCarthy has this championship defense, elite defense, so to speak, and he now has to manage it and try to get this offense at a high level with Aaron Rodgers. The Steelers will be hopefully going to the playoffs, hopefully going to the Super Bowl, so we'll see."
Colon is hosting a new podcast through Playmaker with his former division rival and Baltimore Ravens star, Bart Scott. The two former rivals have become great friends in their post-playing careers and talk about a range of topics, including getting older, everyday topics and of course, football. Scott shows off his trademark quick wit, sarcastic humor while Colon bounces off of it with his own set of humor.
“I think what people are more accustomed to seeing more than ever, they’re accustomed to seeing iconic names coming out of lockers telling their story instead of journalists telling their story, and I think that’s what Bart tried to allude to,” said Colon. “You get to see all of us in various ways. Sometimes we’re at the mercy of a beat writer, we’re at the mercy of a PR person. We’re at the mercy of not challenging a brand or threatening a brand because we represent a specific team or organization. Now you get to see us and all of us.
“We’re our own identity and entity, and I feel that’s important right now more than ever because in the space of social media, where you can AI somebody’s voice, you can AI somebody’s image, you can AI damn near anything,” Colon continued. “You don’t know what’s real or not, but this is what a podcast space allows you to have. You tell your truth, your story, and be you in whatever variation, but you also gotta own up to it, right? Me and Bart go back and forth with that. But I think we’re at our best when we’re authentically us.”
This article originally appeared on Steelers Wire: Willie Colon on why Steelers can make a Super Bowl run