The Pittsburgh Steelers are in first place in the AFC North. Again. It’s all very exciting, I assure you. Just as exciting as when they were in first place in the AFC North two weeks ago. You see how long that lasted, and how valuable it is with 13 more weeks of football to be played as they head into their bye week at 3-2.
Now, make no mistake, it’s always better to be in first place in your division than the alternative. There’s never a bad time to be at the top of the standings. But when the season is only about a quarter of the way through, it’s really not even the time to be looking at them, especially if you’re the one playing.
That was impending 2023 Defensive Player of the Year T.J. Watt’s thoughts after yesterday’s win over the Baltimore Ravens. While he appreciated the timing of the bye week, he made it clear that “first place doesn’t mean anything right now. It’s still too early”.
What does help is the fact that the Steelers have head-to-head wins now over both the Ravens and the Cleveland Browns. The Browns already have two divisional losses, as well, as do the Cincinnati Bengals, who finally look alive and are now 2-3. Pittsburgh has not yet played them, unfortunately, while they were down.
But so far, for as much as it’s worth, the Steelers hold most of the tiebreakers. They have the head-to-head wins. They have the best divisional record. They have the best conference record. They have the best strength of victory and strength of schedule to boot.
All things considered, that’s not a bad place to be, and it’s certainly possible that those things will come in handy later on in the year. There are plenty of times that the Steelers’ fate has been decided by tiebreakers. Most will talk of recent years, but I’m actually thinking of 2011 when the Ravens won the division with both at 12-4 due to a 2-0 head-to-head record. That was a kick in the gonads.
The Steelers still expect that their best football this season is ahead of them, and they anticipate coming out right on the other side of the bye. While they will still have to wait longer before they can get DL Cameron Heyward back into the mix, they should otherwise be pretty healthy. One hopes WR Diontae Johnson will be right by then as well.
The problem, of course, with an early bye week is that there’s a long road ahead. And unless the Steelers claim the number one seed in the AFC, they are going to have to play right through into the playoffs. They have 12 regular-season games left, so they will have to play 16 weeks in a row in order to reach the Super Bowl.
But if the timing is right for a mental and physical reset, then that’s what matters most. Because that more than anything will help them keep their place on that leaderboard when it starts to matter in the months to come.
