Remember the Philadelphia Eagles’ “Dream Team” back in 2011? The roster was stacked with stars like QB Michael Vick, RB LeSean McCoy, WR DeSean Jackson, CB Nnamdi Asomugha, and many more notable names. They gave themselves what turned out to be the infamous nickname as the 2011 Eagles famously underachieved and failed to make the playoffs altogether, getting the title of pretender after all the offseason hype.
Pretenders come up every year in the NFL. You can look back to last season with the Denver Broncos and Russell Wilson’s inability to “cook” as a clear example. Still, some pretenders have the chance to rise to prominence after a down year, making the playoffs and becoming a contender. Maurice Moton of Bleacher Report recently published a piece listing five teams that have the best chance to make the 2023 playoffs after an overhyped season or narrowly missing the 2022 postseason. Included in that list of five teams was the Pittsburgh Steelers, a team that Moton believes can go from pretender to contender in 2023.
“The Pittsburgh Steelers went through growing pains with quarterback Kenny Pickett in the first year of the post-Ben Roethlisberger era,” Moton wrote. “In Week 5 last season, Pickett took over the lead role from Mitch Trubisky for a 1-3 Steelers squad and went 7-5 as a starter. Clearly, the team built momentum with Pickett under center, winning seven out of nine games following its Week 9 bye. At 9-8, it barely missed the playoffs in a conference filled with high-level quarterbacks.
“The Steelers seem set up to build on a strong finish to the 2022 campaign. As the biggest potential threat to the Cincinnati Bengals in the AFC North, they have an edge in continuity over the Baltimore Ravens, who will unveil a new offense under Todd Monken, and the Cleveland Browns, who hired Jim Schwartz to improve an underachieving defense.”
No one really expected the Steelers to contend in the AFC last season after losing Ben Roethlisberger to retirement and had the growing pains of a young rookie QB as well as an overturning of the roster taking place. Still, Pittsburgh managed to get hot down the stretch after a tumultuous start to the year, winning seven of its last nine games as Kenny Pickett showed signs of being a franchise QB.
The Steelers didn’t sit on their hands this offseason as they made a flurry of moves in free agency and were aggressive getting the guys they wanted in the draft to surround Pickett with a good-looking roster on paper. Again, the team needs to get results on the field to avoid being the 2011 Eagles or the 2022 Broncos, but Pittsburgh is in prime position to compete for a playoff spot and potentially secure its first playoff victory since 2016. The defense needs to play up to expectation and Pickett needs to take a step forward in performance in his second season, but Pittsburgh has as good a chance as any to be a team that missed the postseason in 2022 that makes the dance in 2023.
