The Pittsburgh Steelers are sitting pretty at 3-1 during their bye week, and while they have a relatively clear path to an AFC North title, not everybody thinks the Steelers are a good team. One of those people includes The Ringer’s Steven Ruiz, who listed the Steelers under the Good but Not Good Enough (Which Is Just a Nice Way of Calling Them “Pretenders”) category in a recent ranking of NFL contenders.
Ruiz thinks the Steelers are fated for a similar late-season collapse that befell them last year. He also doesn’t think Aaron Rodgers has actually been playing all that well.
“We went through this charade last season before the inevitable late-season collapse that everybody saw coming. And while Aaron Rodgers has weaseled his way to a nice-looking traditional stat line this season, his advanced metrics show that it’s all an illusion. He ranks 20th in yards per dropback, 21st in EPA, and 23rd in success rate, and PFF has him graded as the 28th-best passer this season. He’s been fine, and even that’s being generous. A tough schedule down the stretch will expose this team and its quarterback for what they really are.”
The Steelers haven’t looked like world beaters by any means this season. They needed 34 points to beat a Jets team that’s been offensively challenged ever since Week 1, and only beat the Patriots because New England coughed the football up five times. But 3-1 is 3-1, and in an division decimated by injuries, the Steelers are a team that looks like they can be playing football beyond the first weekend in January.
The criticism of Rodgers isn’t new, and he hasn’t been the MVP-caliber quarterback he was even five years ago. But that doesn’t mean he’s been bad, and I think it’s fair to argue he’s been better than “fine.” There have been some bad throws, but for the most part, Rodgers has done his job running Pittsburgh’s offense. While he hasn’t taken a ton of chances down the field, when he does throw down the field, he’s put the ball where it needs to be.
He’s gotten the ball out quickly and he’s playing winning football. That’s what matters at the end of the day. The Steelers put together their most complete performance in a Week 4 win over the Vikings, and if they can play like that team, they can potentially make some noise down the stretch. But it’s fair to question whether the Steelers will be able to withstand their tough end-of-season stretch with games against the Lions, Bills and Ravens in a four-week period.
Given the state of the rest of the division, it’s hard to see the Steelers collapsing the way they did last year, going from a 10-3 team to a 10-7 team with a Wild Card Round playoff loss. It feels like this team is capable of more, and they started showing that against Minnesota. It might be premature to rule them out of contender status completely.
