Perhaps there is no bigger indicator of the year-to-year fluctuations amongst the NFL teams that are in the playoff hunt than this: For the last 33 seasons, a minimum of four teams that did not make the playoffs one year are in the playoffs the next. That has to give Pittsburgh Steelers fans hope heading into 2023 after narrowly missing out in 2022.
Evidently, ESPN NFL analyst Mina Kimes feels the same way about the Steelers in 2023. On Monday’s episode of ESPN NFL Live, she gave her four new playoff teams for 2023, and the Steelers were one of them.
“A team that was still knocking on the door of the playoffs last year,” Kimes said. “Even with the best player on the team, TJ Watt, injured for much of the season and bringing on a rookie quarterback who I thought played well down the stretch. So I like them.”
As Kimes said, the Steelers narrowly missed out on the playoffs. They finished with the same record as the Miami Dolphins, 9-8, but lost the tie-breaker thanks to a 16-10 loss in Week 7, only quarterback Kenny Pickett’s third career start. After the team’s Week 9 bye week, the Steelers had a 7-2 record over the final nine games of the season. They even beat the Baltimore Ravens who were a wild-card team in Week 17.
There was enough to see that the Steelers had promise despite missing Watt for seven games after tearing his pectoral muscle in the season opener. Perhaps it was no coincidence that Pittsburgh went on a tear when Watt returned after the bye week.
Suffice it to say that the Steelers were one of the best teams in the final nine weeks of the season, and that gives Kimes reason to believe that they could be back in the playoffs in 2023. Then you factor in the talent upgrades on the offensive line with guard Isaac Seumalo and tackle Broderick Jones and the concerted effort to upgrade the defensive backfield with veteran corner Patrick Peterson and rookie corners Joey Porter Jr. and Cory Trice Jr. as well as safety Keanu Neal, and that gives fans even more hope for the return of playoff football.
