The Pittsburgh Steelers’ 2021 season is over, already eliminated from the postseason after suffering a 42-21 loss at the hands of Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs. They just barely made the postseason with a 9-7-1 record and a little help from their friends.
This is an offseason of major change, with the retirement of Ben Roethlisberger, the possible retirement of general manager Kevin Colbert, and the decisions about the futures of many important players to be made, such as Joe Haden, Stephon Tuitt, JuJu Smith-Schuster, and others—some already decided, some not.
Aside from exploring their options at the quarterback position, the top global priority, once again, figures to be addressing the offensive line, which they did not do quite adequately enough a year ago. Dan Moore Jr. looks like he may have a future as a full-time starter, but Kendrick Green was clearly not ready. Chukwuma Okorafor was re-signed, but Trai Turner was not. James Daniels and Mason Cole were added in free agency.
These are the sorts of topics 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. There is rarely a concrete answer, but this is your venue for exploring the topics we present through all their uncertainty.
Question: What will the Steelers’ record be at the end of the 2022 regular season?
There are many tentpoles in the NFL calendar, some more significant than others. The schedule release is not a big one for me at all, but it is sort of the time when people begin to make win-loss predictions for their team as they go down the schedule game by game.
So, now that we know what the Steelers’ schedule will look like this year, and we have the vast bulk of free agency taken care of, and the draft in the rearview mirror, sitting here today, where do you see the Steelers finishing by the end of the 2022 regular season?
It doesn’t even need to be said, but there’s still quite a lot to determine about this team between now and the start of the regular season, let alone during it. The on-field work literally just began yesterday, and that was only with the rookies.
They just signed a free agent yesterday who will likely make the 53-man roster, as well. Most likely, there aren’t 53 players on the current 90-man roster who will be on the 53-man roster on opening day. We don’t know how new players—rookies and veterans alike—will look, and all that.
Yes, there’s still plenty we don’t know, and we can always revisit this question again a few months from now. But, again, sitting here today, with the free agents and rookies in, with the schedule out, what’s your outlook for the Steelers’ 2022 season?
