Which teams are in the best position to make a deep playoff run heading into Week 11? Former NFL running back Maurice Jones-Drew has revealed his picks for the AFC and NFC Championship games and the Pittsburgh Steelers were included.
“First, will be the Pittsburgh Steelers,” said Jones. “These guys, we’re starting to see them get hot. They’re starting to get hot because they’re healthy. The two H’s that work best in November and December, healthy and hot. These guys are playing at a high level, they’re starting to get better play out of guys unexpected.”
The Steelers do appear to be getting healthier right now and the bye week that they’re currently on certainly will help aid in that. In Week 12, they hope to have their entire starting defense all back on the field at the same time as James Harrison, Stephon Tuitt, Ryan Shazier, Jarvis Jones and Will Allen have all missed time since Week 3 of the season.
Jones, as you would probably expect, picked the New England Patriots as the other team he thinks will make the AFC Championship game this year. The Patriots, however, while still undefeated heading into Week 11, are starting to suffer a few injuries of their own on both sides of the football. In fact, they’ll be without wide receiver Julian Edelman for the remainder of the regular-season and that’s a big loss for them.
Should Jones’s prediction come to fruition, we’ll be treated to a rematch of the 2015 regular-season opener. The Patriots of course won that game 28-21 over the Steelers as tight end Rob Gronkowski scored three times. I certainly would like to see that rematch.
