In May, every team hopes they can win the Super Bowl. But some teams clearly have better odds than others. The folks over at Caesar’s Sportsbook considers the Pittsburgh Steelers a longshot to win Super Bowl 58, a +6000 chance to be the last team standing.
As relayed by CBS Sports, the Steelers’ odds are among the worst in the league, tied for 22nd “best” in the NFL. It’s by far the worst of the AFC North. Here’s how they rank the North.
1. Cincinnati Bengals – +1000
2. Baltimore Ravens – +2500
3. Cleveland Browns – +3500
4. Pittsburgh Steelers – +6000
While the Steelers continues to have Super Bowl aspirations, they’ll have to win a playoff game first. Pittsburgh is in one of its longest playoff victory droughts since Chuck Noll arrived in 1969, not winning in the postseason since 2016. That year, they made it to the AFC Championship game before falling to the New England Patriots.
Since then, the Steelers have been upset in the 2017 Wild Card game against Jacksonville and the 2020 Wild Card game against the Cleveland Browns while being blown out in the 2021 Wild Card game versus the heavily favored Kansas City Chiefs.
Getting back to the postseason will require navigating a difficult conference and division. The Bengals, Ravens, and Browns all have playoff aspirations of their own, making AFC North play critical to determining the standings. Over their first five games of the season, the Steelers will face two divisional opponents, hosting Cleveland in Week 2 and Baltimore in Week 5. Two of their final three games of the year are also against the North, home versus Cincinnati in Week 16 and on the road at Baltimore to end the season.
To have any hope of making a run, the Steelers will need to greatly improve the 18.1 points per game mark they registered last season, barley more than they recorded in 2019 without Ben Roethlisberger. That means boosting a red zone offense that’s ranked 23rd in each of the last two years. Defensively, the pass rush will have to get back on track, hurt by missing T.J. Watt for the first half of 2022, and return to its recent history of 50+ sacks. Pittsburgh ended last season with 40.
Fresh off another Lombardi in 2022, the Kansas City Chiefs have the league’s best odds for 2023 at +600. The San Francisco 49ers, Pittsburgh’s Week One opponent, and Philadelphia Eagles, sit tied for second place at +750. The two teams with the worst odds are the Arizona Cardinals and Houston Texans at +20000.
