Despite sitting at 5-3, the Pittsburgh Steelers aren’t getting a lot of love when it comes to the playoffs. Pittsburgh’s offense has struggled, and their wins have been close and ugly, while they’ve gotten thoroughly out-played in their three losses. Still, the fact that this team is 5-3 despite not playing anywhere close to their best football, particularly on offense, is a good sign. It’s one reason why former Steelers safety and current ESPN analyst Ryan Clark said on SportsCenter earlier this week that he thinks the Steelers are a playoff team.
“I know everyone’s gonna say I’m a homer, but yes. And I’m convinced because this team hasn’t outplayed anyone that they played this year, but they’re still 5-3. We watched Najee Harris and Jaylen Warren start to run the football well, and Diontae Johnson coming off IR, what he adds to the pass game, I believe along with this Steelers defense, which has made plays all season, it will give them an opportunity to be in the playoffs,” Clark said.
Pittsburgh’s defense has been playing at a high level all season long, and they’re bolstered by the return of Cameron Heyward. In addition, rookie CB Joey Porter Jr. has risen to the occasion to play like one of the best corners across the league, which eliminates what was a major hole at corner earlier this season. If the offense can just do a little bit more, the Steelers will be fine.
The rest of their schedule isn’t too hard, although four divisional games, with three of them being on the road, in the back half of the slate isn’t ideal. But entering Week 10 at 5-3 is a good place for Pittsburgh to be right now, and we’ve seen some offensive improvements in recent weeks. As Clark noted, the run game finally started to get going against the Titans in Week Nine, with Najee Harris and Jaylen Warren both running for over 65 yards. The insertion of Broderick Jones into the starting lineup should help bolster the run game in the second half of the season, and there’s hope that the ground game can take off in the second half the same way it did last year.
The AFC is crowded, and the AFC North in particular has every team with at least five wins. But the Steelers haven’t been playing all that well early in the season and they’re still in a position to make the playoffs and would be in if the season ended today. Given that, it’s easy to see why Clark would be confident that this team can still find themselves playing beyond Week 18
