The AFC North once again looks to be one of the tougher divisions in football. It’s one of very few, if not the only one, that truly goes four teams deep. There will be no easy divisional wins for any teams this year, that’s for sure.
This only makes it harder for a team like the Steelers to get wins, and to get noticed. They’ve occasionally been swept under the rug in preseason predictions, in favor of teams like the Ravens and Bengals, even though Pittsburgh made the playoffs last year.
However, they didn’t go fully under the radar in the Pro Football Talk AFC North Superlatives, awarded by Mike Florio and Myles Simmons. Florio named the Steelers the “Most Likely To Succeed” (On Defense). Simmons went with the Cleveland Browns.
“I think the Steelers defense will be better this year because the offense will be better. It can’t be much worse.” Florio said. “If you score more points, if you’re in more occasions where the defense is playing from ahead instead of behind, if you’re not just trying to hold on and have a fumble return for a touchdown or a pick-six for an offense that can’t do anything.”
The Steelers had a top-ten scoring defense in 2023 and added pieces like Patrick Queen, who should contribute right away. They’ll also look for a better bill of health from Cam Heyward, among others.
Florio makes a good point about the offense being better as well. It’s hard as a defense to be on the field so much because the offense can’t string drives together to give you a rest. Russell Wilson should help with this. Even if the offense isn’t prolific, anything is better then feeling like you have no chance if the other team gets to 20 points.
Both Florio and Simmons also named Mike Tomlin the “Division King”, which was their version of the award for best coach.
“Tomlin is the quintessential football coach.” Florio said. “He’s new age and old school all in one. He truly doesn’t care about what anyone else has to say about him or the team. He’s got one mission: get my guys ready, get them to play better than their individual talents suggest, and find a way.”
This one is at least a little humorous given that Kevin Stefanski has taken home two recent AP Coach of the Year awards.
There are other great coaches in the division, namely Jim Harbaugh, but this just goes to show how respected Tomlin is at this point, despite his lack of recent playoff success. His players, other team’s players, media members, and other coaches and executives all around the league speak about him with reverence.
Any team with defense and coaching as good as the Steelers have is a tough matchup any given week. Even if they don’t make the playoffs or have a ton of success, they are no easy W on the schedule, for anyone.
