Former NFL linebacker and current ESPN analyst Rob Ninkovich appeared on Get Up this morning and offered his thoughts on the 2023 Pittsburgh Steelers. Ninkovich said that being one of the lesser-talked-about teams in the AFC North will be beneficial.
“They will be competitive. I 100 percent think that the Steelers will be a competitive football team,” Ninkovich said. “When you have a very good division filled with teams that are right there, you kind of don’t mind being the less talked about team that everyone’s counting out and saying you’re gonna finish in last place.”
I’m not sure the Steelers are really one of the lesser-talked-about teams, but their hype compared to that of the Bengals or even the Browns is a little bit lower. Just this morning, Connor Orr from Sports Illustrated put out a list of 12 teams that could win the Super Bowl, and Pittsburgh was the only AFC North team omitted.
The consensus from the national media is that there isn’t a lot expected out of Pittsburgh this season. Even though they went 9-8 last year and have a quarterback entering his second season with an improved offensive line and more weapons along with one of the best defenses in the league, the Steelers are still viewed as the most likely team to come in last in the division.
Every team in the division had a good offseason, and it’s one of the deepest quarterback divisions in the NFL. Joe Burrow, Lamar Jackson and Deshaun Watson have all been high-level performers before and have led teams to the postseason. By default, Kenny Pickett is the worst quarterback in the division, even though you could argue he outplayed Watson in the second half of last season.
When you look at how explosive the Bengals’ offense is and how the Ravens added weapons for Jackson, it makes sense that the Steelers might be getting just a little bit slept on. But as Ninkovich said, that’s a bit of a positive. They can come in without a lot of fanfare and surprise a lot of teams.
There’s a lot of upside for Pittsburgh in 2023. Ten or 11 wins isn’t out of the realm of possibility, and it’s going to be exciting to see how they compete among the rest of the division.
