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: How ‘open’ is the AFC North in 2023?
The Pittsburgh Steelers never go into a season expecting not to succeed. The goal never changes. The mission is always to win the Super Bowl, even if the odds of doing so may seem longer in some years compared to others.
But how the Steelers see themselves and their goals internally and how the Steelers are viewed from the outside often don’t go hand in hand. Most seem to be predicting Pittsburgh to perform similarly to last season, just above .500, maybe 10 wins, with a possible playoff berth.
Meanwhile, many seem to hold the opinion that the AFC North taken as a whole is one of best divisions in football, if not the best overall. The Cincinnati Bengals have emerged as favorites the past two years, but a Baltimore Ravens team with a healthy Lamar Jackson is always a threat to do damage. And the Cleveland Browns will have a full season of Deshaun Watson for the first time.
And so the question is, then, how “open” is the AFC North this year? Is it anyone’s game, so to speak? Are the Bengals the clear favorites, with everybody else a somewhat distant second or worse? Or should the Ravens, assuming a healthy Jackson, be regarded as the team to beat?
One thing that’s worth noting is that the intradivisional play has retained some parity. Even last season, the Bengals only went 3-3, splitting with each of their divisional opponents. Granted, that also means they went 9-1 against the rest of the NFL, which is pretty good.
In some ways, this is just another way of framing the fundamental question that we ought to concern ourselves with: what kind of chances do the Steelers have of recapturing the division title for the first time since 2020?
