While many of you should know that the Pittsburgh Steelers haven’t had a losing season since 2003, which is easily the longest current streak in the league at 17 years, you might be surprised to learn which team is the closest to them entering 2021.
Warren Sharp of Sharp Football posted a tweet on Thursday that shows all 32 teams and the number of years it has been since each has had a losing season. Per his findings, the second-closest team to the Steelers is the Seattle Seahawks, who haven’t had a losing season in nine years.
That’s a huge gap between the Steelers and Seahawks. There’s a pretty big gap between the Steelers and Seahawks when it comes to consecutive non-losing seasons. Additionally 29 of the NFL’s 32 teams have a streak of just five seasons or less when it comes to not having a losing season.
While the Steelers streak is quite impressive, it is overshadowed now by the fact they are 3-6 in the playoffs since the 2011 season, and that they have lost their last two playoff games, both of which were played at Heinz Field. In those two playoff game losses to the Cleveland Browns and Jacksonville Jaguars, the Steelers allowed 93 total points.
In 2021, the Steelers will have the toughest schedule in the NFL based on their opponents’ combined 2020 record of 155-115-2 (.574). Because of that, several major media analysts are already on record as predicting that the Steelers won’t make the playoffs. A few of those are on record as thinking that the Steelers will also have a losing season in 2021, as well. Adam Schein of CBS Sports recently said he can’t find six wins for the Steelers on their schedule in 2021.
Schein, who has been down on the Steelers for several seasons now, also said that he believes the Steelers will lose every game they play in 2021 from Week 11-18. He has them losing on the road to the Los Angeles Chargers on Sunday Night Football for starters, and then dropping their home games against the Cincinnati Bengals and Baltimore Ravens followed by losses to the Minnesota Vikings, Tennessee Titans, Kanas City Chiefs, Browns and Ravens again to close out the 2021 regular season.
Recently, Steelers safety Minkah Fitzpatrick posted about the Steelers’ tough strength of schedule on Instagram and said “I love it.”
Right after the 2021 schedule was released a week ago Wednesday, Steelers defensive tackle Cameron Heyward and cornerback Joe Haden both indicated that they don’t mind having the toughest schedule in the NFL in 2021.
“Let’s quit whining about a damn schedule and get the hell to work,” Heyward tweeted.
Haden had a similar social media response. “If u scared say you scared!!! I don’t give a damn who we play!!! Line it up,” Haden tweeted.
