Former Steeler says the quiet part out loud about the Pittsburgh coaches

Offensive lineman Trai Essex spent seven of his eight NFL seasons with the Pittsburgh Steelers. Essex won two Super Bowls with the Steelers and was one of the most underrated guys on the team. Now that he's retired, he's become quite outspoken about his former team and this year he's taking aim directly at the coaching staff.

Essex went on 93.7 The Fan and said he absolutely blames the scheme for the Steelers' problems this year.

"It's a scheme thing, dude," Essex said. "It's all scheme. The talent is there and for us to have, and I used this analogy I guess last week, but it applies every week, Dr. Jekyll, Mr. Hyde. I don't understand. I do understand it is definitely scheme because the talent is there, and when you have the players come after the game and just say they don't know. When Payton Wilson comes out and says it's like we're the best defense on one play and then we're not on other plays? It points strictly to the coaching and the positions that they're being put in on a play-to-play, game-to-game basis because it's not consistent."

Essex is preaching to the choir on this one. The Steelers look completely out of sorts on both sides of the football this season but especially on defense. There is just too much talent on this defensive roster for the coaching staff to be so poorly managing it. Offense is a different matter as it is holding its own given the roster changes but the defense must be better.

This article originally appeared on Steelers Wire: Former Steeler says the quiet part out loud about the Pittsburgh coaches