The Steelers are now in their offseason after failing to reach the playoffs in 2022, coming up just a game short of sneaking in as the seventh seed. They needed help in week 18 and only got some of it, so instead they sat home and watched the playoffs with the rest of us.
On tap is figuring out how to be on the field in January and February instead of being a spectator. They started out 2-6, digging a hole that proved too deep to dig out of even if they managed to go 7-2 in the second half of the year.
Starting from the end of the regular season and leading all the way up to the beginning of the 2023 season, there are plenty of questions that need answered, starting with who will be the offensive coordinator. Which free agents will be kept? Who might be let go due to their salary? How might they tackle free agency with this new front office? We’ll try to frame the conversation in relevant ways as long as you stick with us throughout this offseason, as we have for many years.
Question: Who will play in the Super Bowl, and who will win it all?
There are three games remaining in the 2022 NFL season. Four teams remain. Two teams will win one more game. One team will win two games. and 31 teams will be mad. Only one of the four remaining can be the team that’s happy at the end.
The Philadelphia Eagles will host the San Francisco 49ers in the NFC Championship Game, while the Kansas City Chiefs will host the Cincinnati Bengals for the AFC side. Both AFC quarterbacks already have AFC experience. On the NFC side, neither had ever been in the playoffs before, with 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy being a rookie.
Both conference finals take place today, so we’ll know by tonight who plays in the Super Bowl. What are your predictions for tonight’s games? Will the Pittsburgh Steelers’ division rival once again represent their conference, or will Patrick Mahomes of the Chiefs reach the championship game for the third time in the last four seasons?
And on the other side of the league, can Purdy continue his surprising run against one of the toughest defenses in the league? The seventh-round pick has largely played beyond expectations, but has also increasingly shown signs of his limitations. Yet Jalen Hurts on the other side of the ball, like Mahomes, is playing at less than 100 percent.
Of potential note to Steelers fans, of the four remaining teams, only the 49ers have more than two Super Bowl victories, sitting at five. If they happen to win this year, they will tie the Steelers and the New England Patriots for the most in NFL history. The Chiefs, meanwhile, are looking for their third, the Eagles their second, and the Bengals their first.
Who will get it? And who would you most like to see get it—or perhaps, which would be least disagreeable?
