With the Pittsburgh Steelers on a break before heading to Latrobe for training camp, we’re going to take a look at our expectations for this upcoming season and offer some over/under statistics to weigh in on. The offense wasn’t overly prolific last year, but the defense did put up some big numbers.
That can change in 2023 now that the offense is beginning to mature around second-year quarterback Kenny Pickett, though, and if the Steelers can keep T.J. Watt healthy all year, that will only help everybody be more productive—perhaps especially the defensive backs. So each day we’ll project one stat line, whether for a player or a unit, and share our thoughts before asking you to weigh in on whether you think they will hit the over or the under.
It is your job to project whether or not the over or under will be hit. At the end of the series we will be tallying up the answers for each installment to create a collective pre-training camp snapshot of where you stand heading into the 2023 season.
Stat Line: 10.5 wins for the Steelers
I think I want to see how confident we are right now. It seems that the consensus opinion is the Steelers will most likely go 10-7 during the 2023 season. But how many of us, sitting here today, believe that they will be better than that? Can they get to 10 wins? And for the record, in the event of a tie, I would consider 10.5 as taking the over here.
A good place to start when discussing records is always looking at the schedule. The Steelers have their divisional opponents, of course, and they split with all of them. There are situations that can play to their advantage as well, such as drawing the San Francisco 49ers in week one when their quarterback situation may be less stable.
This is perhaps not one of their most strenuous schedules, though it will come down to a lot of factors. For example, what will Matthew Stafford look like for the Los Angeles Rams? What about Jordan Love with the Green Bay Packers, whom they don’t play until week 10? Who will quarterback the Tennessee Titans in week nine? Ryan Tannehill? Will Levis? Malik Willis?
But how many teams, straight out, are simply better than them? They don’t play the Kansas City Chiefs or the Buffalo Bills, the Philadelphia Eagles or even the Dallas Cowboys. This actually may be a year in which the divisional play is particularly important.
And one can make the argument that the Steelers have gotten better in terms of being able to square up against their divisional opponents in particular. They’ve shored up the trenches, so the Baltimore Ravens will probably have to throw to win. And the Cincinnati Bengals may not have as easy a time doing so.
This is absolutely a roster that can win at least 11 or 12 games, on paper. But will they do it on the grass when it counts? Submit your predictions now.
So what do you think? Taking these factors and others into consideration, are you taking the over or under 10.5 wins for the Steelers? Answer below and at the end of the series we’ll tally all your answers together to see where you stand before we get to training camp.
