For every NFL team, making the playoffs is step #1 when it comes to team goals. Obviously, winning the Super Bowl is the top goal for every NFL franchise, but making into the dance must be priority #1 when competing against 31 other teams that have the exact same mission as you.
The Pittsburgh Steelers are a team that has been a stable in the postseason the last two decades, making a playoff appearance 14 times since 2000. However, their success in the playoffs as of late hasn’t been great, having failed to win a playoff game since 2016. Last season, Pittsburgh missed out on a playoff berth after a dreadful start to the 2022 campaign, but rallied down the stretch to give fans optimism that a playoff appearance could be had in 2023.
Conor Orr of Sports Illustrated believes that the Steelers have as good a chance as any team that missed out on the postseason last year, naming them one of the six NFL teams that are most likely to have a turnaround season in 2023 and reach the playoffs.
“The Steelers went 9–8 last season,” Orr writes. “How that is not ranked among the finest coaching performances of the last decade is beyond me. T.J. Watt, who missed 10 games a year ago, is back. Second-year quarterback Kenny Pickett will absolutely be better, and I heard both his velocity and deep ball distance have improved. While the team’s most critical infrastructure is on the older side (Cam Heyward is 34, Patrick Peterson will soon be 33, Damontae Kazee is 30), the injections of new life at cornerback and up front should give them a fresher dynamic.”
The fact that Pittsburgh lost reigning DPOY T.J. Watt the first week of the season due to a pec injury that caused him to miss seven games as well as went through a QB change by putting rookie QB Kenny Pickett into the starting lineup four games into the season are big reasons why Pittsburgh missed out on the postseason in 2022. The Steelers went through a transition year following the retirement of Ben Roethlisberger while having their star defensive player out for a good portion of the season while having one of the youngest offenses in the NFL trying to gel together on the fly.
With Watt fully healthy and Pickett having a full season and offseason under his belt, Pittsburgh’s chances of making the playoffs in 2023 should be a lot better than they were last season. Factor in the improvements this team made through free agency and the draft by beefing up the OL, giving Pickett more weapons in the passing game, and adding various talented players to the defense and the 2023 Pittsburgh Steelers look like a team ready to contend for a playoff spot.
While this season shouldn’t be considered a success unless this team finally wins a playoff game, getting into the dance is the first step. Should this team be as good as it looks on paper and running through OTAs and minicamp, there’s a real good chance Pittsburgh reaches that first check mark of a playoff berth.
