With the Steelers sitting at 5-3 near the halfway point of the 2023 season, you’d figure that they would have a good chance of making the postseason. According to Playoffstatus.com, the Steelers have a 64% chance of making it to the Wild Card round of the AFC playoffs with a 33% chance to make it to the Divisional round.
Adam Schein of CBS Sports mentioned a couple of weeks ago that he thought Pittsburgh would make the playoffs after defeating the Los Angeles Rams coming off their bye week with QB Kenny Pickett showing that late-game magic to come from behind while OLB T.J. Watt and the defense routinely coming in the clutch to make a splash play. This morning, Schein only strengthened his stance on Pittsburgh’s prospects of making the postseason, personally guaranteeing that we will see the Steelers in the playoffs.
“When you look at the remaining schedule for the Pittsburgh Steelers, and I’ve said this consistently all season long, they are making the playoffs,” Schein said on video from NFL on CBS’ Twitter page. “They are absolutely, 100%, no doubt about it. This team is making the playoffs.”
When you look at the remaining schedule for Pittsburgh, it is quite favorable on paper. They play a 2-5 Packers team next week that has struggled with consistency both offensively and defensively in the post-Aaron Rodgers era. They play the Browns the following week in Cleveland after beating them, 26-22, in Pittsburgh in Week Two, with the status of QB Deshaun Watson and his health continually up in the air. They face the Bengals twice, which will be a legit test as Cincinnati looks to be heating up after a slow start to the season. The Steelers also have the Seahawks and Ravens at the end of the season and both teams look like playoff-caliber clubs.
However, Pittsburgh will face the Cardinals, Patriots, and Colts in three consecutive weeks and all have poor records as the three franchises have struggled to gain any traction this season. Arizona could get QB Kyler Murray back but may consider keeping him on IR as the team isn’t in position to compete with a 1-7 record. The Patriots’ offense looks just as not bad, if not worse than Pittsburgh’s, while the Colts are on backup QB Gardner Minshew with rookie QB Anthony Richardson out for the season with an injured shoulder. The Steelers have shown a tendency to slip up to bad teams they should beat in the past, but all three of those games look winnable as we sit here today.
If the offense continues to take strides forward and the defense can get everyone back healthy, there is no reason to think that Pittsburgh won’t make the postseason as a Wild-Card team. They should be able to win five of their next nine games, giving them 10 wins on the year, putting them in a better spot last season when they nearly snuck into the postseason with nine wins after an impressive second-half surge. We must see this team execute better on the field in the coming weeks, but Schein isn’t wrong in saying that this Steelers team has a good shot of being included in the postseason by season’s end.
