Mike Tomlin calls Le'Veon Bell and Antonio Brown to leave the club as a "cleanup"

The 2019 NFL draft is officially over and the 32 teams entered in 2019 with their new draft selections and free agents not recruited, there are still some outstanding issues from 2018 for the Pittsburgh Steelers.

But let's go back for a second.

After the drama surrounding the absence of Le'Veon Bell and the forced exit of Antonio Brown from Pittsburgh, the Steelers remained silent. Mike Tomlin did not call a press conference while he was being shot under the bus, and Ben Roethlisberger did not follow the airwaves until his name and stature were tarnished.

They remained silent. But it was time to answer the questions.

As usual at Mike Tomlin's, he avoided issues like a pro at NFL owners' meetings, and even at his preliminary press conferences, but from time to time, Tomlin will give some material to his fans . He spoke with ESPN's Trey Wingo after writing the project.

When Tomlin was asked about the departure of Le'Veon Bell and Antonio Brown, his response was frank. "There was a cleaning, if you want."

There is something to be said about having less drama, less antics and less excitement around your team. Even if you lose two All-Pro talents, could the team really improve their team without them? Do you know the classical theory of addition by subtraction?

Unfortunately, this answer is only known when the 2019 version of the Pittsburgh Steelers will be on the field and that a new core of players will attempt to write their own story – one without Brown and Bell.

Will James Conner continue on his upward trajectory and prove that Bell is more than replaceable? Will a combination of Donte Moncrief, James Washington, JuJu Smith-Schuster, Vance McDonald, Diontae Johnson and Ryan Switzer prove that they can, as a group, take over from Brown while He was throwing himself at the Raiders?

Only time will tell, but one thing is certain … I do not think Mike Tomlin will miss numbers 26 and 84, and all that has surrounded these two players, in 2019 and beyond.