It’s been a little while since the Pittsburgh Steelers were considered a top contender in the AFC heading into a new NFL season. With lots of roster turnover on offense, various coaching changes, and poor quarterback play, the Steelers have been a tier or two below the Kansas City Chiefs, Buffalo Bills, Cincinnati Bengals, and a few others over the last few seasons.
The AFC is deeper than ever, brimming with quarterback talent from top to bottom, led by Patrick Mahomes and the seemingly unstoppable Chiefs. The question all Steelers fans are asking is whether Russell Wilson or Justin Fields have the chops to catapult the team into true contender status or if they still belong in the middle of the pack with the playoff-hopeful teams.
CBS Sports’ Garrett Podell ranked all the AFC teams in tiers based on their contender status, and the Steelers were placed in Tier 4 titled “Wild-card wilderness.”
“The Pittsburgh Steelers’ top 10 scoring defense, led by three-time NFL sacks leader T.J. Watt, the only player to lead the league in sacks three different seasons, Joey Porter Jr. and Patrick Queen, is a high-caliber group,” wrote Podell. “However, it’s unclear if either Russell Wilson or Justin Fields can snap out of either of their respective funks that got them booted off of their previous teams this past offseason.”
It’s hard to argue with the Steelers’ placement on this list based on the past few years’ results (as well as some ugly play in the preseason). The Steelers have been a legitimate Wild Card contender each season, but they’ve been heavy underdogs when they make the playoffs, and they haven’t won the AFC North since 2020 with Ben Roethlisberger at the helm. Envisioning a Super Bowl run in 2024 seems like wishful thinking when the Steelers’ last playoff win was back when Peyton Manning was winning his last Super Bowl.
But the rebuilt Steelers’ roster has some reasons for hope. After all, Russell Wilson has played in two Super Bowls and won one, and Patrick Queen may be filling a void at middle linebacker that’s existed since Ryan Shazier’s tragic injury back in 2017. And if there’s one truth about the Pittsburgh Steelers over the past decade, it’s that Mike Tomlin knows how to get the most out of the talent on his roster, and the Steelers will win some head-scratching games that they have no business winning based on their statistical performance.
Maybe one of the two quarterbacks really pans out. Maybe Arthur Smith cooks up creative schemes, resulting in Pro Bowl seasons for George Pickens and Najee Harris. And just maybe, the Steelers get hot at the right time, and upset a top contender in the first round of the playoffs, at which point anything can happen. That might be a less miraculous feat than last year’s 10-win season with the trifecta of Kenny Pickett, Mitch Trubisky, and Mason Rudolph at quarterback.
I don’t take issue with CBS Sports ranking the Steelers in Tier 4 of AFC contenders (especially with the Chiefs in their own tier, which basically puts the Steelers in Tier 3), but I do believe they should be a tier above the Indianapolis Colts and Los Angeles Chargers, two of the other teams in Tier 4 along with the Jacksonville Jaguars. The Chargers were 5-12 last season, and they lost Justin Herbert’s two favorite targets in Keenan Allen and Mike Williams. Hiring Jim Harbaugh is a huge bonus, but it shouldn’t be enough to position them as a real playoff contender. Meanwhile, the Colts haven’t made the playoffs since 2020, and their quarterback, Anthony Richardson, has appeared in just 17 games since high school! The Steelers deserve to be ranked below teams like the Bengals and Dolphins, but it’s disrespectful to their recent history to place them alongside the Chargers and Colts.
We’ll find out one week from now whether the Steelers are on par with another playoff-caliber team when they take on the Atlanta Falcons. Hopefully, Russell Wilson and Co. show enough positive signs to give fans an inkling of hope that this just might be the year.
