The Pittsburgh Steelers seemingly have a tough 2022 schedule ahead of them and with several questions the team has on the offensive side of the football, you might be hard-pressed to find many major media analysts picking them to win more than 9 games this season. On Thursday evening, former NFL wide receiver Andrew Hawkins was on NFL Total Access, and he was asked to pick the Steelers 2022 schedule game-by-game. After doing so, he has the Steelers going 9-8 in 2022.
Hawkins has the Steelers going 4-4 in their first eight games of the 2022 regular season with the wins coming against the New England Patriots (Week 2), Cleveland Browns (Week 3), New York Jets (Week 4) and Philadelphia Eagles (Week 8). That means he predicted four losses in the first eight games against the Cincinnati Bengals (Week 1), Buffalo Bills (Week 5), Tampa Bay Buccaneers (Week 6) and Miami Dolphins (Week 7).
In the Steelers final nine games following the teams Week 9 bye, Hawkins has them going 5-4 with wins coming against the New Orleans Saints (Week 10), Indianapolis Colts (Week 12), Atlanta Falcons (Week 13), Carolina Panthers (Week 15) and Baltimore Ravens (Week 17). The four loses in the second half of the regular season he has coming against the Bengals (Week 11), Ravens (Week 14), Las Vegas Raiders (Week 16) and Cleveland Browns (Week 18).
To summarize the big picture, Hawkins has the Steelers going 2-4 in AFC North play in 2022 with both wins coming on the road against the Ravens and Browns. He has the Steelers going 3-5 at home in 2022 and 6-3 on the road. He has them going 3-1 against NFC South teams and 2-2 against AFC East teams.
Quite honestly, I’m not so sure there would be many fans against the idea of the Steelers being 9-7 going into their regular season finale against the Browns. Personally, I might take that offer right now if I were guaranteed it would happen. After all, 10 wins from the Steelers in 2022 would more than likely result in a Wild Card spot for the playoffs.
Obviously, if the Steelers were to go 2-4 in the AFC North, odds would be great that they would not win the division.
As part of the Thursday segment, Hawkins made it known that he thinks Steelers rookie quarterback Kenny Pickett will be the team’s Week 1 starter.
“You draft a guy in the first round, you want him to play,” Hawkins said. “Kenny Pickett is going to be the quarterback of the Pittsburgh Steelers. That’s always been the plan in Pittsburgh, in my opinion.”
So, does Hawkins think that a 9-8 record for the Steelers in 2022 will result in them making the playoffs?
“I don’t know, it’s going to be tough in the AFC,” Hawkins said.
What do you think about Hawkins’ game-by-game predictions for the 2022 Steelers?
