The Pittsburgh Steelers offensive improvements in the preseason has NFL analysts hot and bothered about the team’s prospects this upcoming season.
The most recent pundit to show their love for the team is CBS Sports and Sirius XM’s Adam Schein. He devoted his opening monologue on his Schein on Sports radio show to praise the Black and Gold following the team’s 24-0 win over the Atlanta Falcons Thursday night.
“You can get a little bit fired up today if you’re a fan of the Pittsburgh Steelers because I’ve been saying all offseason I love Kenny Pickett and the Pittsburgh Steelers,” Schein said Friday. “I really think if you’re a Pittsburgh Steelers fan you should be not overreacting to the preseason but salivating at the upside and potential of this football team.”
The analyst did stress that you would need to be a “moron” to overreact to the preseason but continued his praise of the team and starting quarterback Kenny Pickett, saying he “pitched a perfect game.”
To be fair, he’s not far off with Pickett throwing for 199 yards, and two touchdowns on 13-of-15 passing in three preseason games. More significantly, in every drive featuring Pickett and the first-team offense, the team has scored a touchdown, going five-for-five on drives.
Along with Pickett, the running game and improved offensive line has also been potent. The duo of Najee Harris and Jaylen Warren combined for 14 carries for 113 yards and three touchdowns in preseason play. For those keeping score at home, that is an average rush of 12 yards per carry. Obviously, this is boosted by Warren’s 62-yard score against the Buffalo Bills, but the team has been able to find consistent success on the ground.
Schein took a step further a few minutes into his monologue, calling the Steelers the second-best team in the AFC North division, something many are still skeptical about with the looming threats of the new-look Baltimore Ravens offense and Year Two of the Deshaun Watson-led Cleveland Browns. Still, the analyst has his current divisional rankings as Cincinnati-Pittsburgh-Baltimore-Cleveland.
He does preface his order by saying the AFC North is the best division in football and that he would not be surprised if we revisit his rankings during the season and the standings are utterly different.
For a team that has not been under .500 in Mike Tomlin’s 16 seasons manning the ship, it would seem unlikely the team will slip to a non-competitive level of football this season. Moreover, with the noted improvements shown by the team offensively, and in some respects defensively (looking at you, Devin Bush), Steelers fans seem to be in lockstep with Schein that this preseason is not a “fluke.”
