If you have a jug of three-year-old expired milk in your fridge, it’s probably not only time to put that in the garbage can, it’s worth calling a Hazmat team. That’s essentially how NFL analyst and writer Tyler Dunne summed up the state of the Pittsburgh Steelers under new quarterback Russell Wilson, a team on the outside-looking-in of a competitive AFC North race.
Weighing in on the division in his Tuesday Go Long newsletter, Dunne credited the Steelers for being scrappy but concluded the North’s stronger quarterback play elsewhere would likely win out.
“Pittsburgh has mastered the art of mucking games up,” Dunne wrote. “Never count out a team with arguably the best non-QB in football (T.J. Watt). They’ll hover around .500. But talking yourself into this version of Russell Wilson leading your team to a championship feels like chugging a gallon of milk three years past its expiration date.”
Wilson has become the Steelers’ top storyline of the offseason, a topic that will continue into the fall. Whether Wilson wilts and begins to wrap up his NFL career or resurges and leads Pittsburgh to a deep playoff run, his addition is the team’s most notable free agent signing, in terms of storyline and attention, perhaps ever.
Quarterback play has held the team back for years and Pittsburgh’s offense must get more production than the combined 25 touchdowns passes that the position has produced over the past two years. That ranks last in the league.
As Dunne points out, the Steelers are always in the mix. Under Mike Tomlin, they’ve played a grand total of one “meaningless” game since 2007, a contest in which Pittsburgh was eliminated from the playoffs and had nothing to play for. That came in the 2012 finale against the Cleveland Browns, the Steelers entering the game 7-8. They won to preserve Tomlin’s “never had a losing season” streak but his “meaningless” stat, while still not the team’s goal, is arguably more impressive.
Regardless, Dunne believes the AFC North frontrunners are the Cincinnati Bengals returning to glory after missing the playoffs a year ago.
“If Joe Burrow is healthy, the Bengals are best equipped to give Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs their best shot,” he wrote
Burrow missed the final quarter of last season due to a wrist injury. Injured in the summer, the Bengals got off to a slow start with him in the lineup but began to hit their stride midseason, winning four-straight to jump back into the AFC race. Backup Jake Browning did an admirable job replacing Burrow, but the team lacked the offensive firepower needed to contend, finishing 16th in points after placing seventh the previous two seasons.
Dunne was also down on the Baltimore Ravens’ ability to bounce back while he held out questions over Cleveland Browns QB Deshaun Watson.
All eyes will be on the North this year. “Hard Knocks” announced that their camera crews will follow the division over the final six weeks and postseason. Given the structure of the Steelers’ schedule, playing four divisional games over that span, the accuracy of Dunne’s belief will be tested to close the year. And if that expiration date on Wilson’s bottle was accurate or not.
