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’s your pick to win Super Bowl LVII (and who are you rooting for)?
It’s a holiday today (of sorts), so I figured why not offer two questions for the price of one? After all, they’re similar enough to address at the same time. Question number one: who do you think will win the Super Bowl? Question number two: who do you want to win the Super Bowl?
The only thing I ask is that you please limit your answers to the two teams that are actually playing tonight. Yes, I want the Steelers to win, too.
The Philadelphia Eagles and Kansas City Chiefs were the top teams in either conference by record, and also feature the two quarterbacks who made this season’s All-Pro list. Neither of them seem to be 100 percent healthy, but that’s football.
I do think that the biggest difference between the two teams is the Eagles’ defensive superiority. But a very close second is the magic of Patrick Mahomes. Even with a bum ankle he can still seem to move around and make things happen when 99 times out of 100 virtually nobody else would. At the end of the day, I’m personally not going to make a prediction.
As for rooting interests, I have an aversion to Philadelphia teams generally, yet I love Javon Hargrave and like many other players the Eagles have. Both teams, I will say, are fun to watch. If push came to shove and I had to pick one team over the other, I suppose I would go with the Chiefs, though I think I’d rather see Hargrave get a ring this year than JuJu Smith-Schuster—nothing against the wide receiver. I’d like both of them to get a ring, but only one can tonight.
