Though the Pittsburgh Steelers are never a team dwelling in the NFL’s basement, a bottom-five club just hoping for the season to end, there’s no question they’ve stagnated. A team that appears on the “in the hunt” graphic more times than you can count, it’s good about staying in the race and making the playoffs only to be bounced during Wild Card weekend.
But with an offseason focus on its seven-year postseason victory drought, NFL.com’s Judy Battista names Pittsburgh as a team capable of turning around its fortunes in 2024. She ranks the Steelers fifth out of seven squads poised for a better season ahead.
“Here’s another team that made the playoffs last season, and still it felt like a failure. The Steelers were unusually aggressive in remaking their quarterback room, signing Russell Wilson, dumping Kenny Pickett and trading for Justin Fields. Wilson is in line to be the starter, and he doesn’t even have to be as good as he was with the Seattle Seahawks to improve one of the lowest-scoring offenses in the league. Wilson joins a team with a stellar defense (which now includes linebacker Patrick Queen) that largely carried the Steelers throughout last season. Now, they will have veteran leadership for a young offense, a quarterback who can get the ball to George Pickens and an offensive coordinator (Arthur Smith) whose run-centric scheme will take some pressure off Wilson.”
A fair assessment all around. For some clubs, making the postseason would be a successful season. Not Pittsburgh. The Steelers have done that song and dance long enough to the point where, at least from a national media view, that standard has been accepted. But internally, there’s a need to get over the hump and win their first playoff game since the 2016 Divisional Round, snapping the longest post-merger drought in franchise history.
Adding Wilson, Queen, and the like will help. If Wilson can post even average numbers, say 3,500 yards and 22 touchdowns, it’ll be a welcome sight for a Steelers team that has struggled to reach those marks in the post-Ben Roethlisberger era. With a healthy running game, improved offensive line, and more competent scheme, even a “good” offense is good enough to win. So long as the defense stays healthy and plays like its usual self, creating pressure up front, turnovers in the back, with an excellent kicker and hopefully new varsity punting. There are holes on the roster but also a draft to plug them.
Whether you want to frame the Steelers’ 2024 season as “turnaround” or just getting over the hump, Pittsburgh is building a roster to at least advance to the next round. Calling the Steelers Super Bowl contenders remains a stretch but if you can be one of the final eight teams, you have a chance. That’s the gambit Pittsburgh’s making.
Other turnaround teams on Battista’s list include the Philadelphia Eagles, who collapsed late last season, the New York Jets with a healthy Aaron Rodgers, and Chicago Bears, who hope to pick up where they left off in 2023, winning four of their final six games.
