Todd Haley spent six seasons helping turn the Pittsburgh Steelers offense into one of the most dynamic in the NFL.
All the yards and all the touchdowns weren’t enough
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The Steelers chose not to renew Haley’s contract on Wednesday, three days after the AFC North champions were ushered out of the playoffs in a 45-42 divisional round loss to Jacksonville.
”I have made the decision to not renew the contract for offensive coordinator Todd Haley,” coach Mike Tomlin said in a statement. ”I would like to thank Todd for his contributions to our offense the past six years, and we wish him the best in his coaching future.”
The 50-year-old Haley, whose father Dick spent two decades as Pittsburgh’s director of player personnel in the 1970s and 80s, was hired in 2012 and tasked with developing an offense around quarterback Ben Roethlisberger.
Though there appeared to be some tension between the two early in Haley’s tenure, the results rewrote much of the team record book.
The Steelers finished in the top seven in total offense in each of the past four seasons, including third in 2017.
Pittsburgh won three division titles and reached the playoffs in each of those seasons thanks in part to Haley’s playcalling, the ascension of All-Pro wide receiver Antonio Brown to one of the best players in the league and the arrival and development of All-Pro running back Le’Veon Bell.
Brown is the only player in NFL history with five consecutive seasons with at least 100 receptions. Bell is one of the best all-around backs in the league and his 406 touches in 2017 were 60 more than any other player.
Roethlisberger tied for the NFL lead in yards passing in 2014 and just as importantly saw the number of times he was sacked decrease substantially even as he put the ball in the air more frequently.
Haley and Roethlisberger downplayed any discord between the two, though Haley swapped places with Randy Fichtner in the middle of the season, moving from the sideline to the coach’s box.
Haley was injured during an incident at a bar near Heinz Field on New Year’s Eve shortly after the Steelers wrapped up a 13-3 season with a victory over Cleveland.
Haley was not considered a direct party to the incident and he said afterward he had the team’s full support and was told it was not an issue moving forward.
Less than two weeks later, Haley finds himself looking for work. Tomlin declined to endorse Haley’s return during his season-ending news conference on Tuesday. A day later Haley’s productive if tumultuous time with the Steelers was over.
Whoever replaces him will have one of the most talented offenses in the NFL at his disposal. The entire starting offensive line is under contract for 2018. Roethlisberger has already stated publicly he will be back for a 15th season.
Brown is signed through 2021. Bell’s situation is a little more unclear. The team can place the transition tag on him as it did this season
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Fichtner is the leading in-house candidate to take over for Haley. Fichtner has been with the team since 2007 and has spent the past eight years as quarterbacks coach. He has a solid rapport with Roethlisberger and the transition would likely be very easy for a team built to win now.
For all of Haley’s acumen, Pittsburgh’s offense came undone this season in critical moments due to curious playcalling.
Twice the Steelers were stopped in fourth down situations against Jacksonville. A first-quarter drive ended when Bell lost yards on fourth-and-inches.
Pittsburgh had the ball and a chance to tie the game early in the fourth quarter when Roethlisberger threw incomplete to rookie JuJu Smith-Schuster on fourth down when advancing the ball a mere foot would have extended the drive.
Those sequences came a month after the Steelers lost to New England at home on Dec. 17 when a potential go-ahead touchdown pass to Jesse James in the final seconds was overturned on replay and Roethlisberger attempted a pass after a fake spike two plays later.
The pass was picked off and the Steelers lost, costing them home-field advantage throughout the playoffs, a sequence that helped cost Haley his position with the team.
NOTES: Steelers offensive line coach Mike Munchak will remain with the team. The Hall of Fame offensive lineman and former head coach of the Tennessee Titans had interviewed for the vacant head coaching job in Arizona but removed himself from contention saying ”the timing for my family was not appropriate for me to pursue this potential opportunity.” … Longtime wide receivers coach Richard Mann announced his retirement after 33 seasons as an assistant, including the past five with Pittsburgh.
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BOSTON — Their bats clearly on fire, the Boston Red Sox head to New York this weekend for the latest chapter of the rivalry with the New York Yankees.
But first, there’s work to do at home.
After blowing a 6-0 lead but surviving to move back into first place in the American League East, the Red Sox go for the series and season sweep of the floundering Los Angeles Angels at Fenway Park on Thursday night.
With Steven Wright hitting the disabled list with left knee inflammation, left-hander Brian Johnson (1-2, 4.50 ERA) gets the start for Boston against rookie righty Jaime Barria (5-3, 3.40) in Thursday night’s finale — before the three games in the Bronx.
The Red Sox, who have scored 48 runs in their last six games, hit the halfway mark of their schedule by moving a half-game ahead of the Yankees at 54-27. They have outscored the Angels 45-10 in five games this season.
Johnson started in the fifth game of the season
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The Red Sox are a season-high 27 games over .500. They are 3-3 against the Yankees, who are off Thursday before the third series of the season between the rivals.
J.D. Martinez hit his 25th homer of the season Wednesday, already one more than Mookie Betts‘ club-leading total last season. Martinez is the seventh Red Sox player with at least 25 homers in half a season.
“He’s becoming a leader of the team in the clubhouse,” Boston manager Alex Cora said after Wednesday’s game.
Martinez, asked if he sets offensive goals before the start of the season, said, “Nah. My goal is to not give an at-bat away, you know?”
While his team did rally from six runs down to make a game of it Wednesday, Los Angeles manager Mike Scioscia didn’t have much to be happy about following the 9-6 defeat.
The Angels, who have lost five straight and 12 of their last 16 games, got bad news before the game regarding Zack Cozart and then saw just-recalled reliever Jake Jewell carted off the field after suffering what appeared to be a serious ankle injury.
“Hoping everything is OK with Jewell
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Cozart will likely miss the remainder of the season after surgery to repair a torn labrum in his non-throwing shoulder.
“Zack Cozart received a second opinion on his left shoulder after experiencing continued discomfort during his progressions,” the Angels said in statement. “After additional imaging and clinical examination, it was recommended that he undergo surgery to repair a torn labrum in his left shoulder. Zack will undergo surgery in Los Angeles in the near future. We will update with additional information when appropriate.”
As far as the Angels’ current situation, Scioscia said, “We’ll keep battling, but at some point obviously we need to put both ends together, get the pitching we need and get some early runs, get the game on our terms and start to do things the way we can.”
Jewell, appearing in his third major league game after arriving earlier in the day, was injured covering home plate on a wild pitch in the eighth inning.
“It was sad, really sad,” Los Angeles catcher Martin Maldonado said. “Young guy or an old guy, it’s hard to see a teammate go down like that.”
c right-hander Garrett Richards suffered a season-ending injury while covering first base at Fenway.
Jewell and infielder Nolan Fontana had been recalled
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The Angels also said rookie Shohei Ohtani with have his left elbow re-evaluated Thursday — amid talk he could return as a hitter this season while not pitching.
“If he was solely a DH, he would have been cleared right away,” general manager Billy Eppler said on MLB Radio, “but because you are wanting that ligament to heal, to get that impact he brings on the mound, you want to — I don’t want to coin it the danger zone — but you want to get to the point where you are feeling that area has plenty of time to scar and heal.
“That’s what the three-week prescription is for, to buy you that time of scarring and healing.”
Barria, who allowed one run in five innings in his last start,has gone an impressive 3-1 with a 3.10 ERA on the road. He has never faced the Red Sox.
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