Mike Tomlin’s 17-season streak without a losing record isn’t news to anybody at this point, but many are predicting its downfall in 2024.
With one of the hardest schedules in the NFL, the majority of the projection models and experts around the league are low on the Pittsburgh Steelers’ chances of sniffing the .500 mark, let alone surpassing it with a winning season.
Marcus Spears was posed the question Monday morning on ESPN’s Get Up: Is this the year that the Steelers have their first losing season under Tomlin?
“Hell no, you’ll never make me say it,” Spears said. “History tells me that Mike Tomlin figures out a way to win in a barren land with no water. Somehow, in the Sahara, he finds some water, some kind of way. He might mix 17 different quarterbacks. He may change the grass in the stadium 400 times before the season [is] over with, but he’s gonna find a way to have a winning season.
“Defensively, Pittsburgh is still elite. T.J. Watt, Alex Highsmith is still over there. I think this team finds a way to have a winning season again this year.”
Even ESPN’s FPI model has the Steelers with a projected win total of 7.9, so Spears is going against the company grain. And that is far from the lowest win projection I have seen. At the lowest, I saw a CBS Sports projection with just six wins for the Steelers.
The focus all offseason was adding pieces that would get them over the hump to secure their first playoff win since the 2016 season. If it results in a move in the wrong direction like a losing season, which would obviously have them missing the playoffs, that would have large ramifications for the future of the team.
Tomlin was extended through the 2027 season, but neither Russell Wilson nor Justin Fields are under contract beyond 2024. A failure of this magnitude would likely mean scrapping any future plans with either quarterback, sending them back to the drawing board in free agency or the draft.
I agree with Spears. It is hard to envision a losing season for this team. The defense has a chance to be exceptional with some of the offseason additions and an intact defensive core consisting of Cameron Heyward, T.J. Watt, Alex Highsmith and Minkah Fitzpatrick.
It’s also hard to envision the offense being worse than the 2023 duo of Matt Canada and Kenny Pickett. Russell Wilson at least provides a higher floor, while Arthur Smith’s system is much more schematically sound than that of Canada.
But there is less than a week now until all of the speculation comes to an end, and we finally get to see what quality of product the Steelers put out on the field.
