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 is your initial reaction to the Steelers’ official schedule for the 2022 season?
After many days of ‘anticipation’, let’s call it, the NFL finally revealed all 32 teams’ playing schedules for the 2022 season yesterday, including the Steelers, and the most notable thing about it is, perhaps, the fact that there isn’t much notable about it.
They have their bye week in the middle of the year. They don’t have any more than two games in a row at home or on the road. Arguably the biggest ‘quirk’ of the schedule is the fact that two of their five scheduled primetime games take place in back-to-back weeks.
It’s a pretty balanced schedule, overall, if not a bit top-heavy. They open on the road against the Bengals before hosting the Patriots and then moving on to their first primetime game in Cleveland—with or without Deshaun Watson, we don’t yet know. Perhaps this is an indication of the league’s thinking?
Anyway, let’s get back to the topic at hand. What is your reaction to the schedule? As a lot of you responded yesterday, it isn’t necessarily earth-shattering news to find out when each game is going to be played, but having it all laid out does give you a clearer picture of what the season will look like—insofar as we can know that a third of a year in advance.
