The Pittsburgh Steelers caught a few strays from Colin Cowherd on today’s episode of The Herd.
During a rant about the Dallas Cowboys and the NFC East, Cowherd referenced the weak quarterback play across the division, essentially leading to Dallas picking up “layup” wins. He compared the situation to the Ben Roethlisberger-era Steelers, saying the AFC North was flush with weak quarterback play at that time as well. The only difference? The Steelers were able to capitalize on those victories, winning two Super Bowls.
The discourse took a hard left turn about halfway through with Cowherd then bashing the Steelers for not being able to keep up as the rest of the division teams have improved their quarterback situations.
“What also happened with Big Ben, late,” Cowherd said, “Uh oh, [Joe] Burrow’s in the division now. Lamar [Jackson]’s in the division now. Hell, Baker [Mayfield]’s in the division now. And at the end, Cincinnati and Cleveland weren’t the layups and suddenly the Steelers got really irrelevant really fast and brag about never being below 500. That’s their standard.”
Yeah, not too sure about that one. In a vacuum, sure, the Steelers haven’t been the perennial powerhouse of the AFC, winning Super Bowls as fans have come accustomed to. However, when you compare the Steelers to the AFC North, saying they “irrelevant” because of the quarterback situation across the division it’s just factually untrue.
Using his own measurements with Mayfield, Jackson and Burrow, let’s see the Steelers’ overall success during that time. Starting with the Ravens, since Jackson was drafted in 2018, the Steelers are 8-4 against them. Since Mayfield was drafted in 2018, the Steelers are 7-4-1 against the Browns. The only team that has been a thorn in Pittsburgh’s side is the Bengals, who are 4-4 against the Steelers since Burrow was drafted in 2020. That means the team has a non-losing record against all divisional opponents since they drafted the quarterbacks whom Cowherd claims made the Steelers “irrelevant.”
I will agree that “the standard” Steelers fans have become accustomed to is still sorely missing. Rather than raising divisional banners, the team should aspire to hoist Lombardi Trophies. While I’m not ready to say the team “lowered” its standard over the years, it certainly has fallen short of championship status.
Hopefully the Steelers can continue their momentum this season with QB Justin Fields and that their dominant defense once again reigns over the league and stops this type of discourse.
