With nine weeks gone in the 2023 NFL season, the Pittsburgh Steelers now sit at 5-3 at the midpoint of their journey. Many would argue that they are lucky to be there. Others might say that you create your own luck.
Either way, they are where they are, but where they go from here, argues CB Patrick Peterson will be determined by who they are—more specifically, contenders or pretenders. Most questions have been answered over the past two months.
Everyone has a feel for who they are, and who their opponents are. Surprises are few. The weather is getting colder. The bodies are getting more banged up. All that’s left is to roll out the ball and play. And that will decide if the Steelers can get to where they want to be.
“We’re getting there. It’s still a work in progress, but I will say we’re moving and trending in the right direction”, Peterson told reporters on Thursday, via the team’s website. “Now in the third quarter of the season, November, that’s where a lot of the real football is being played. A lot of pretenders start to weed themselves out, and we want to be one of those teams that continues to trend in the right direction”.
Like Marlon Brando’s character in On the Waterfront, all Peterson wants is to be a contender. If we’re being honest, though, the Steelers haven’t been genuine contenders for some time. They did manage to host a playoff game in 2021, but with just a 9-7-1 record, they proceeded to be blown out by the Cleveland Browns.
Even the year before that when they had a 12-4 regular season, it seems that few really respected what their record was. They began the season 11-0, largely by dominating the closing moments of one-score games. But things began to unravel in the final weeks of the year. And they fell apart entirely in the playoffs.
The last time, I would argue, that the Steelers were a genuine threat was the 2017 season. And we might be able to narrow that down even further to the specific moment just before ILB Ryan Shazier attempted to tackle Cincinnati Bengals WR Josh Malone in Week 13.
That was the play on which he suffered a severe spinal injury that ended his football career. They still kept winning after that, but could not sustain the same level of play, and it was all exposed in the playoffs.
How close is this team to being like that 2017 team? Well, there are some areas in which they are better. Their pass rushers are better, for one thing. They have S Minkah Fitzpatrick, at least when he gets back healthy.
But is Joey Porter Jr. their Joe Haden? Could George Pickens and Diontae Johnson even approach Antonio Brown and peak JuJu Smith-Schuster? Kenny Pickett at this point in his career is far from what Ben Roethlisberger was at that time, before his throwing elbow gave out.
Ultimately, how much patience is left before the Steelers find their next contending team? From the ownership, it seems the patience is unlimited, at least as it pertains to head coach Mike Tomlin’s job security. But how long will they wait to find out if Pickett is the answer?
Let’s start by seeing how the next two months play out. I’m not quite ready for mock drafts.
