In just 17 days the Pittsburgh Steelers will kick off the 91st season in franchise history.
Expectations are high for the Black and Gold with a young offense that looks poised to take a significant leap in 2023, and a defense that has its stars back and healthy, along with great depth around them.
There’s a lot of football left to be played moving forward that will define the 91st season for Pittsburgh, but Sports Illustrated’s Conor Orr believes he has a strong grasp on just what will transpire for the Steelers in 2023.
That prediction? A late-season collapse — again — and a 9-8 record under head coach Mike Tomlin.
In a piece for Sports Illustrated Thursday, Orr dropped his game-by-game predictions for the Steelers, seeing the Steelers ultimately finish 9-8.
Take a look:
That’s certainly an interesting prediction from Orr overall. The 9-8 is puzzling, especially when reading his comments on the Steelers overall.
“Anyone else peep Kenny Pickett’s preseason opener against the Buccaneers? Not bad, right? As is often the case, we see some of the most significant and noticeable growth from a quarterback between seasons one and two. If the full power of that receiving room is realized and Pickett becomes, say, a Derek Carr–level passer in terms of production, what do we make of a team that will be great defensively if healthy? I could easily see the rationale behind swapping Pittsburgh and Baltimore here,” Orr writes regarding the Steelers for SI.com. “The Steelers start the season with a doozy of an opener against the 49ers, but could be getting my projected NFC champions at the right time. From there, the Browns, Raiders, Texans swing should prop Pittsburgh up on steady footing.”
The Steelers do have a difficult path opening up the 2023 season, hosting the San Francisco 49ers at Acrisure Stadium, which happened to be the first time in eight years that Pittsburgh opens up at home. The 49ers are the NFC runner-ups from last season and only got better this offseason. Along with San Francisco, hosting the Browns in Week Two on Monday Night Football is a tough test.
Orr has the Steelers at 0-2 after two weeks, which really isn’t all that big of a surprise.
Following the two losses, Orr has the Steelers going 3-0 with wins on the road against Las Vegas and Houston before beating Baltimore at home in Week Five, sending the Steelers into the Week Six bye at a strong 3-2 overall.
Coming out of the bye, Orr has the Steelers getting into mid-December at 8-5, thanks to wins over Jacksonville, Arizona and New England at home, and wins against Cincinnati and Cleveland on the road, but losses to Los Angeles on the road and Tennessee and Green Bay at home puts the Steelers at the 8-5 mark.
From there, Orr has the Steelers collapsing down the stretch, winning just one of the final four games, losing on the road to Indianapolis, Seattle and Baltimore, and winning at home against the Bengals, finishing 9-8 on the year.
Elsewhere in the AFC North, Orr has the Bengals going 13-4 and winning the Super Bowl, with two of those regular season losses to the Steelers, while he has the Ravens finishing second in the AFC North with an 11-6 mark. Cleveland finishes last in Orr’s predictions at 8-9 overall.
The 9-8 prediction isn’t all that big of a surprise from Orr, but some of the losses projected are.
A long road trip to Los Angeles to take on the Rams can be tough theoretically, but the Rams will be one of the youngest teams in the league and are in the midst of a rebuild. Tennessee will be tough on a short week, but that’s still a surprising loss. Hard to envision the Steelers dropping both the Titans game and the Packers game at home in consecutive weeks.
The predicted loss on the road against the Colts in Week 15 was the stunner. With the Jonathan Taylor saga getting uglier and uglier by the minute, the Colts might find themselves in the race for the No. 1 pick in the 2024 NFL Draft. That would be a very, very bad loss, at least as we sit here today.
All that said, Pittsburgh feels like — at worst — a 10-7 team in 2023. Easier schedule, more talent and depth on the roster, key pieces taking significant steps forward. It’s all lining up well for Pittsburgh.
