I poked fun at the broader sports media yesterday in pointing out that everybody can’t agree on a team being a “sleeper” pick if everybody is picking them. The more agreement there is, the more you have to question if the team in question is really being slept on.
And that does seem to be the case at this point for the 2023 Pittsburgh Steelers, who have gotten plenty of love over the past month with one of the cleanest offseasons in their recent history. From free agency to trades to the draft to training camp and through preseason performances, they have drawn praise for how they’ve put this team together and what potential they’ve shown.
But is that potential achievable in 2023, or is this just going to be the developmental year before the Steelers actually get to where they want to be? WR Diontae Johnson doesn’t see any reason why they should be expected to wait until next year or some other time. He knows they can compete right now for the Super Bowl.
“Of course. No doubt”, he told Kevin Adams and Jersey Jerry on the Steel Here podcast in a new episode dropped today featuring an interview with the veteran wide receiver. “I feel like this is the year. People can say what they want to say, but when you’re out there playing alongside these guys, you can just feel it. But if you’re not, you can’t, really, so you won’t understand”.
Is this the year, though? How far can they take things? Even while the Steelers have been showered with approval, most still find themselves projecting marginal winning records of 9-8 or 10-7, possibly with a seventh-seed trip to the postseason and an early first-round exit.
Perhaps the biggest reason for the disparity between how good many seem to feel about the Steelers as a term versus their actual expectations for the season is the fact that they are in what is regarded by most as the toughest, most competitive division in football.
The Cincinnati Bengals have reached at least the AFC Championship Game in each of the past two seasons, coming within a minute of winning the Super Bowl in 2021. They only lost to the eventual Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs in the conference finals last year on a last-second field goal.
Then there’s the Baltimore Ravens, a team that should always be competitive with a healthy Lamar Jackson at quarterback. Personally, I am not the type of person who assumes injuries will occur and I will not take for granted that Jackson won’t play as well against Pittsburgh as he does against most defenses on most weeks.
Finally, there is the question of the Cleveland Browns, arguably the biggest wild card team in the NFL. What kind of year will QB Deshaun Watson have? It will be his first full season since 2020. They have made upgrades to their defense, however, and they still have the nucleus of the offense, which is RB Nick Chubb.
If the Steelers can somehow get out of the AFC North, perhaps even win it, that will say a lot about their chances of being competitive, not some vague time in the near future, but right now. The Bengals made a stunning jump in QB Joe Burrow’s second season. Why not the Steelers in QB Kenny Pickett’s second?
Check out the entire interview with Johnson below.
