Will the Steelers prove to be contenders or pretenders after playing the Commanders and Ravens?
The Pittsburgh Steelers are about to embark on arguably their toughest two-game stretch of the season, or at least the second toughest. They face the Washington Commanders on Sunday before hosting the Baltimore Ravens the following week.
While they will have to go to Baltimore before hosting the Kansas City Chiefs on Christmas, the Steelers still have a tough pairing on their hands over the next two weeks. And it could potentially say a lot about who they are this season, and how far they can go.
The Commanders and Ravens are both two of the best and hottest teams in the NFL right now. They will provide a good test for the Steelers to see what quality of team they are after playing a relatively soft first eight games.
After all, while the Steelers are on a three-game winning streak, they are all against two- and three-win teams. Beating the Jets and Giants and Raiders is nothing to write home about. They also beat a gimpy Kirk Cousins in Week 1, a not-quite-ready Bo Nix in Week 2, and a banged-up Justin Herbert, who couldn’t even finish the game, in Week 3.
So have the Steelers even beaten a good team this year? One could argue that they haven’t. But if they can beat the Commanders and the Ravens and get to 8-2, I think everyone would be left with no choice but to take them seriously.
Of course, that might also depend on how they win. If Russell Wilson looks like garbage and they barely win, that is a concern. You want the Steelers to win in a way that is predictive of duplicating that in the postseason.
The Steelers are not going to finish the season 15-2, which I think everybody knows. They are not going to beat every good team out in front of them, and nobody should expect them to. But if they look competitive and like they could beat those teams, while still positioning themselves for good playoff seeding, that’s a win.
The Steelers’ 2024 season is underway, following another disappointing year ending in a first-round playoff loss. They have had a long offseason since the Buffalo Bills stamped them out of their misery back in January. There are positive signs, but things could jump off the rails any moment.
The biggest question hanging over the team is the quarterback question. Is Russell Wilson earning a lucrative new deal next year, and is Justin Fields still in consideration? How will the team continue to address the depth chart, which is surprisingly still in flux?
The regular season is here, following weeks of camp and preseason games. The Steelers made numerous moves through signings and trade—and release. More than usual, they seemed comfortable creating holes, confident they can fill them. Some they managed to fill, others not so much. Now that we have so many pieces of the puzzle, however, we merely have a new set of questions to ask.
