The 2023 Pittsburgh Steelers are a far cry from the franchise’s highest moments. The team, plagued by shoddy execution and a baffling lack of effort, is essentially becoming the exact opposite of what everyone expects from a Mike Tomlin team.
In effect, the Steelers have become a dystopian version of themselves. That is a viewpoint not lost on Rich Eisen, who compared the Steelers to the world of The Hunger Games on Thursday’s episode of the Rich Eisen Show when he took a look at his five most intriguing matchups of the upcoming NFL weekend. He began with some praise for Cincinnati Bengals QB Jake Browning before pivoting to the mess that has engulfed the Steelers.
“Coming into Pittsburgh to try and keep the Steelers in a complete and total tailspin,” Eisen said. “George Pickens is saying I don’t want to be Tank Dell, I’m not blocking on the goal line, and Mike Tomlin’s like we’re working on it. And Steeler fans are like well, we’re working on finding a new coach. It is just an absolute Hunger Games scenario that is playing out right now in Western Pa., and it’s got to stop with Jake Browning coming into their house.”
Hyperbole has a way of injecting both humor and perspective into a situation. If you’ve never read The Hunger Games (or watched the movies, inferior as they are) the quick synopsis is that people from the 12 districts of Panem have to send “tributes” or people who have been selected via a lottery system, to the Capitol of Panem to fight in the Hunger Games for glory. Unfortunately, everyone but the winner ends up dead. There’s a lot more to it, but that’s the background we need for the purposes of this discussion.
So while no one is fighting for their literal life in Pittsburgh, there are plenty of people who you could argue are fighting for their football lives. Pickens was seen as the next great Steelers (and NFL) receiver heading into the season. Now fans are calling for him to be jettisoned faster than Katniss Everdeen can fire an arrow. The same goes for Tomlin.
You could look at the Steelers’ situation and say it’s untenable. Either Pickens or Tomlin will have to go after the season. Heck, there are plenty of people saying that both should go. However, like in the Hunger Games series, there is a flicker of hope for the Steelers going into Saturday’s matchup. There’s the faint prospect of the playoffs and we haven’t heard a cannon firing to signal the death of their playoff chances. Then there’s the chance to sweep some division rivals.
“Then they sweep the Bengals,” Eisen said if the Steelers can stop the tailspin. “And by the way, the crazy thing is they could sweep the Ravens, the Steelers by the end of the year, by the end of the season. So who the heck knows what could happen in this one?”
One thing is for sure, the Steelers have no hope if they keep tearing themselves apart from the inside. They need to come together like the districts do (spoilers!) to keep the season meaningful. It’ll require people who appear to be very different and have different goals to set those aside and fight together, not against each other. If the Steelers can do that, there is still hope in what appears to be a dystopian NFL world.
You can watch Eisen break down the entirety of his Top Five Most Intriguing Matchups list below.
