The Pittsburgh Steelers are 6-2 heading into their bye week. They took down the New York Giants 26-18 Monday night, thanks in part to a performance by QB Russell Wilson that made even Mark Schlereth admit he was wrong about Wilson. Now in control of the AFC North with likely playoff hopes, The Rich Eisen Show’s Chris Brockman offered a Steelers’ prediction about that possibility.
“They’re going to the AFC Championship game,” said Brockman on the show’s Overreaction Tuesday segment. “You see Mike Tomlin found the camera and gave the ol’ Top Gun thumbs up? They are feeling themselves. Why can’t this team be a part of the final four?”
I’m sorry if you missed the camera shot Brockman mentioned during the game. But we’ve got you covered.
Tomlin approves #Steelers #NFl pic.twitter.com/Ng4AkQPvaq
— Steelers Depot 7⃣ (@Steelersdepot) October 29, 2024
I think it’s pretty safe to say that Tomlin and the Steelers are feeling themselves right now. After all, Tomlin made what appeared to be a huge gamble just the week before. He put QB Justin Fields on the bench after a 4-2 record as a starter. He turned to Wilson, who had suffered a calf injury during the leadup to the season opener. That’s after Wilson missed a good chunk of training camp with a calf injury.
But the Steelers put up big yards in back-to-back games, putting up 400-plus on both the New York Jets and the Giants. Tomlin, by everything we’ve seen so far, got it right. It could change in the future, but there’s no question the Steelers’ offense has looked really good with Wilson under center.
But is that good enough to predict an AFC title game berth? Eisen struggled with that.
“I’ll repeat again what we said all summer long, or actually since the schedule came out, and we saw that the [Steelers] have the entirety of their AFC North schedule,” said Eisen. “And this is when the Bengals where everybody’s like, Burrow’s healthy. And we were all like, can Deshaun Watson be elite? Maybe the Browns? Like we went higher register on the Browns. And we were all believing in the Ravens. We saw their entire schedule from week 11 on, Pittsburgh’s schedule. It’s their entire AFC North schedule… They have to do two things: make sure the quarterback is set and make hay in the first half of the season.”
The Steelers are 6-2, and that’s good enough to be first in the AFC North through eight weeks. That’s making some mighty fine hay.
And Wilson certainly looks like he’s elevating the Steelers’ offense. Is it enough to challenge for the AFC title? People like former NFL WR James Jones think so.
Others, like Wilson’s former teammate Richard Sherman, want to see more. He needs to see the Steelers against the Baltimore Ravens before he’s willing to have that discussion, and that’s fair. It’s a fair prediction the division will come down to the Ravens or Steelers.
And the rivalry could very well step up this year. The Steelers signed former Ravens defenders LB Patrick Queen and S DeShon Elliott in free agency this offseason. And on Tuesday, the Ravens traded for former Steelers WR Diontae Johnson from the Carolina Panthers.
But if the Steelers want to prove Brockman’s prediction correct, winning the AFC North is a great place to start. And that begins with two big games against the Ravens looming after the bye week. But the road to the AFC Championship looks a lot easier this year with the rest of the North and big chunks of the AFC struggling.
