Longtime sportswriter Peter King decided to release his first set of power rankings for the upcoming 2015 season in his latest MMQB column and surprisingly he has the Baltimore Ravens listed as his top overall team.
As for the Pittsburgh Steelers, King has them ranked 8th overall and one spot behind the Philadelphia Eagles.
King writes:
Like Antonio Brown a lot. Like Ben Roethlisberger a lot. But this faith is subject heavily to the ascension of Keith Butler to defensive coordinator after 16 seasons as a defensive assistant below the coordinator level. Mike Tomlin is putting tremendous faith in Butler, who replaces Hall of Famer Dick LeBeau, to be a breath of fresh and productive air. Risky move, and early returns are good. But early returns come in shorts and T-shirts on the South Side of Pittsburgh, not on a cruel Thursday night in Foxboro.
It’s interesting that King puts so much emphasis on the Steelers first game of the season against the New England Patriots. For starters, Patriots quarterback Tom Brady might not even play in that game and should that wind up happening, I’m not sure that contest can be used as any type of measuring stick for the defense new defensive coordinator Keith Butler. Instead, King should’ve pointed to the Steelers Week 4 game against the Ravens.
These early offseason rankings invite plenty of discussion during the slow news cycle and we all know how quickly things can change from one team to the next because of injuries. With that said, I still think King has severely overrated the Ravens and the Minnesota Vikings and underrated the Indianapolis Colts and Denver Broncos.
As for King’s ranking of the Steelers, I think it’s about right give or take a spot.
