There is hardly a thing the Pittsburgh Steelers have done this offseason that didn’t feel “right”. You couldn’t really ask for a better offseason with the way everything has gone leading up to this weekend’s opener for the regular season against the San Francisco 49ers.
While many analysts remain hesitant to buy into them as a legitimate threat to make a deep postseason run, there has been almost universal positivity about the Steelers have built as a competitive, multi-faceted unit that can win in many different ways.
That’s how analyst and former NFL QB Phil Simms feels about this Steelers team, according to the Santa Cruz Sentinel’s Jerry McDonald. He was particularly impressed with second-year QB Kenny Pickett, with whom the offense had a flawless preseason, scoring touchdowns on all five of his possessions.
“I know it’s preseason, I don’t care. His movement, his confidence in himself, the offense, I love what they were doing”, McDonald quotes him as saying in a recent article. “I think they’re going to add on to what they did last year. His decision-making has been terrific”.
“I think the other thing that goes unnoticed about him is he can move around to throw the ball and pick up runs when he has to too”, he added. “Very impressed with Kenny Pickett last year, and I think the start of this year the Steelers are going to be pretty tough”.
It will be a tough first test against a 49ers team that very well could have advanced to the Super Bowl if not for QB Brock Purdy suffering an elbow injury in the NFC Championship Game last year. The second-year quarterback is back and seems to be ready to compete in the opener, however—a battle between the first quarterback drafted in 2022 and the one drafted last.
Few would deny that the roster and system Purdy stepped into in San Francisco was more conducive to success than what Pickett had to work with last year, so reading into the disparities in success should be done with caution.
Sunday’s game will be an opportunity for a direct one-to-one comparison between the two second-year quarterbacks in the same game against quality defenses. On the other hand, it’s reasonable to wonder if Purdy will be at the top of his game given his limited offseason while recovering from elbow surgery. He did look good in preseason play, so perhaps those fears are unfounded.
One thing I do buy is that the Steelers will be, in Simms’ words, “pretty tough”. I do not know how many games they will win this year, but I am confident that they will not be an easy out for anybody. I expect a lot of close games this year as their defense and running game help control the pace of play.
The wild card is how big of a step the passing game can take this year. With a full offseason to work with his targets, a second-year George Pickens, and a rookie Darnell Washington, the potential for them to be at least a top-15 unit is high, if not in the top 10.
