The Pittsburgh Steelers are No. 17 in ESPN’s NFL FPI Rankings ahead of the 2024 season, one spot ahead of the Los Angeles Chargers and one below the Jacksonville Jaguars. The San Francisco 49ers were ranked No. 1, while the Kansas City Chiefs came in at No. 2. The Baltimore Ravens, Detroit Lions and Buffalo Bills rounded out the top five. Seth Walder tweeted a graphic of where each team ranked in the first release for 2024.
First look at FPI ratings for the 2024 NFL season. pic.twitter.com/6eQF5hshMS
— Seth Walder (@SethWalder) May 29, 2024
ESPN defines FPI as “a measure of team strength that is meant to be the best predictor of a team’s performance going forward for the rest of the season.” So basically, ESPN expects the Steelers to pretty much be in the middle of the pack in 2024. They ranked 10th in the AFC in FPI, so strictly going by that metric, ESPN doesn’t expect the Steelers to make the playoffs. They were also the lowest-ranked team in the AFC North, with the Ravens coming in at No. 3, the Cincinnati Bengals ranking No. 8, and the Cleveland Browns ranked No. 14.
The Steelers had a lot of success against their divisional counterparts last season, but four of their six divisional games came against backup quarterbacks, so it’s hard to use that as an indicator of success, especially with roster turnover each offseason.
But the Steelers got better at quarterback with the additions of Russell Wilson and Justin Fields, revamped their offensive line through the draft and added a legitimate playmaker to the middle of their defense in LB Patrick Queen. Despite a tougher schedule, the Steelers upgraded their roster this offseason, and they should be competitive even in a tough conference and division.
The Steelers still could continue to add to their roster as well, with another receiver addition a real possibility. That could impact where their FPI sits before the start of the season, as it’s still only May and there’s still a lot of tinkering to be done with the roster. That could happen up until Week 1 after final cuts are made.
It’s a fair placement for the Steelers considering there are still questions about their quarterback room (even though Wilson and Fields should both represent an upgrade over Kenny Pickett) and their lack of talent at receiver behind George Pickens plus some questions about their cornerback depth. At this point in the offseason, there’s only so much predictive metrics and analytics can tell us about the season ahead, which is still 98 days away from kicking off, but it’s good to set a baseline of how the Steelers are viewed.
