The Pittsburgh Steelers have made the playoffs more often than not recently, but they haven’t been Super Bowl contenders for a few years now. They haven’t even won a playoff game since 2016, so things have been tough in the postseason for the Steelers. However, despite that struggle, Cam Heyward believes it wasn’t that long ago that they had a real shot at winning a Lombardi Trophy.
Speaking to the media Monday after practice, Heyward was asked which year he felt like the Steelers had the best chance at winning a Super Bowl since he was drafted in 2011.
“I think either [2016] or [2017],” Heyward said via Steelers Live on Twitter. “[In 2016], I was hurt. [In 2017], [Ryan Shazier] got hurt. When [Shazier] went down, we were like the top-rated defense at the time, and it just kind of threw us for a loop. Hopefully, we have something that rivals that this year.”
2016 was the last time the Steelers won a playoff game. They advanced to the AFC Championship after defeating the Kansas City Chiefs. However, they were destroyed by the New England Patriots, losing 36-17. It was the closest the Steelers had gotten to a Super Bowl since they were actually in the big dance in 2010, and it’s also the closest they’ve been since then.
That team in 2016 just unfortunately happened to be playing Tom Brady when he was the best player in the world, so it’s understandable how they lost. The 2017 team, on the other hand, saw a much worse ending.
Heyward is correct that Shazier, who was a super athletic linebacker and the quarterback of the Steelers defense at the time, saw his career come to an end in 2017. That tragic accident left a huge hole in the middle of the defense, and the Steelers failed to find an adequate replacement for Shazier.
The Steelers went 13-3 that year but went one-and-done in the playoffs, falling to the Jacksonville Jaguars. It’s one of the ugliest losses in recent playoff history for the Steelers, especially because they had expectations to win a Super Bowl. Based on what Heyward says, though, it seems like the team was just too shaken after the Shazier incident to really get back on course.
This year could be different, though. Even if they aren’t championship contenders, the Steelers could win a playoff game this year, and that would be a step in the right direction. Anything can happen once you make the playoffs, too. Those teams in 2016 and 2017 weren’t perfect either. No team really is. It’s just about being good enough at the right time.
