The Pittsburgh Steelers are now into the regular season, following the most unique offseason in the NFL since at least World War II. While it didn’t involve a player lockout, teams still did not have physical access to their players, though they were at least able to meet with them virtually.
Even training camp looked much different from the norm, and a big part of that was the fact that there will be no games along the way to prepare for. Their first football game of the year was to be the opener against the New York Giants.
As the season progresses, however, there will be a number of questions that arise on a daily basis, and we will do our best to try to raise attention to them as they come along, in an effort to both point them out and to create discussion
Questions like, how will the players who are in new positions this year going to perform? Will the rookies be able to contribute significantly? How will Ben Roethlisberger look—and the other quarterbacks as well? Now, we even have questions about whether or not players will be in quarantine.
These are the sorts of questions among many others that we have been exploring on a daily basis and will continue to do so. Football has become a year-round pastime and there is always a question to be asked, though there is rarely a concrete answer, as I’ve learned in my years of doing this.
Question: Are the Steelers rated fairly based on both their record and their on-field performance?
The Steelers are making franchise history this season in extending a winning streak to begin a season up to 10 for the first time ever. Many other teams have managed it, of course, but it’s something that somehow always alluded Pittsburgh.
After kinda-sorta blowing out the Jacksonville Jaguars on Sunday, a team against whom only the New York Jets can compare in futility, the Steelers retain the best record in the NFL, while the Kansas City Chiefs only narrowly avoided being swept in the season series by the Las Vegas Raiders, who admittedly are a competent team this season, Covid-19 protocols notwithstanding.
Reviews have been mixed, however. While there are few or possibly no outlets who continue to argue that the Steelers belong outside of the top five, we see a pretty fair variety within that five-team margin, from first to fifth.
Other popular teams who share the top spots are the Chiefs, of course, the Green Bay Packers, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, the New Orleans Saints, the Buffalo Bills, and the Baltimore Ravens, though the argument for the latter has taken a hit with back-to-back losses.
So who are the Steelers? Are they the best team in the league? Are they on the outskirts of the top five? Will things catch up with them once they play more accomplished teams like the Indianapolis Colts and the Buffalo Bills—and perhaps eventually the Chiefs in the postseason? Basically, are the Steelers rated fairly—that is to say. Appropriately—in the general estimation of the media?
