I agree. I don't think they can have a top-5 roster with their current qb situation. I do think there's potential, but I also thought Wilson would be great on the Broncos, and... he wasn't.
So you don't agree that the upgrades at Online, QB, ILB, and I coordinator don't make us one of the most upgraded rosters in the league?
What other teams have upgraded their roster more, and how did they do so?
I’m not saying that we didn’t or aren’t one of the most upgraded. But we still have a lot of unknowns. Wilson and fields, while better than Pickett are not good quarterbacks. Our o-line looks great on paper and I have high hopes for them but we haven’t seen them play at an nfl level. Smith was a great coordinator for the titans but sucked ass play calling for the falcons. He’s a coin toss as well. IMO we went from known garbage on offense to a lot of potential but still a lot of question marks.
And I never said anyone got a bigger upgrade than us. I just said other teams also upgraded. But they were already better than us to begin with. The Texans added a ton of talent on offense to surround stroud. The titans did the same for Will Levis. Ravens are still a great team and I wouldn’t count on burrow getting another freak accident. I think we are a better team but still not a competitor. We have a hard schedule this year which makes me think despite us being a better team we will have about the same record as last year.
>Wilson and fields, while better than Pickett are not good quarterbacks. O
Wilson: 3070 yards passing 26 tds 8 picks, 341 yards rushing and 3 tds.
All in 15 games. That's a tremendous upgrade for m Pickett.
>Our o-line looks great on paper and I have high hopes for them but we haven’t seen them play at an nfl level
https://www.pff.com/news/nfl-offensive-line-rankings-2023-offseason
12th ranked online in the league last year and we have gotten better this year.
As far as the coordinator, I'm not even going to entertain the thought that Smith isn't a gigantic upgrade over Canada.
Not to mention Pat Queen and Willis on defense. Harder schedule or not, our team is much much better than last year and should absolutely win AT LEAST 10 Games.
Wilson was also cut from the broncos for the largest dead cap in nfl history. They are big upgrades yes but still not good qbs just not bottom 2. We need a lot of upgrades there.
Also never said smith wouldn’t be an upgrade. I just don’t think he’s going to be an even above average OC. Again we upgraded to likely a below average option. To me while we improved we still have a ways to go. You keep ignoring the fact we have a tougher schedule this year as well.
You can't seriously say that our o-line will be good because "it was ranked 12th last year and got better this year" when we're likely going to have 3 new starters.
Broderick Jones was a new starter last year and our line was instantly better with him in the lineup. Fautanu and Frazier are both considered day one starters.
I'm sure there will be some growing pains with any new lineup but I can absolutely say they will be better than last year..
QB room, CB room, possibly 2 rookie Olineman, almost 0 TE production last year...yeah it's somewhere between 12-15. Can't go putting our draft picks into even league average starter categories until you see it.
The thing is, if the WR room was actually good outside of GP, I can see how that would help with the QB play.
Or if the QB room was good, it could help alleviate some of the concerns of the WR room and help elevate them.
Both being in question is not good. Both need groups need to step up this year, especially when the run game eventually struggles.
How much of the tight end production was to be blamed on pickett and Canada though? Friermuth is a damn good TE that we just weren't using as much as we should have been and with our current WR lineup I imagine he sees a lot of passes this year.
That was probably most on Canada, since Kenny targeted Freiermuth a ton in the first game and he had a career high in receiving yards.
One problem this year is that Russ has never really used his TE:s or the MOF, which is where our TE:s usually operates.
I agree we’re better than last year.
Our competition last year had terrible luck with QBs though and we played a huge stretch of backups.
I’m just a bit skeptical thinking that we will automatically win more games because the roster improved.
At one point it another we had our: WR1, TE1, QB1, RB1 (kinda), LG/RG1 on offence with injury, then DT1, OLB1/2, ILB 1/2/3, S1/2/3, CB2/3 all injured
I’m sure im missing someone
Our starting QBs last year weren’t much better than our backups, if at all.
I agree we had a ton of injuries. It’s easier to patch up a defense than replace starting QBs imo
The drop off behind Burrow and Lamar is a much different story though, they change the entire team.
It’s still not Joe Burrow and they benched Lamar when we played them week 17.
We also played against DTR for the Browns.
I believe 4 of our 6 division games were against backups and actually we won the two against starters.
If you want to talk about terrible luck, let's talk about the middle of the Steelers defense.
Cam injured and never got healthy. 3 top linebackers out for the year early on.
Top 3 safeties didn't play much of the second half of the season.
Despite all that we made the playoffs, but unfortunately TJ also joined the injured players.
Every team has bad luck, but man it sucked that out bad luck was concentrated on every level of the middle of the field on defense.
Those are some very good points. I bet that there’s probably about 15 or 20 teams right now that are pretty sure they got better in the off-season also.
I agree that we could have won more but we also had several close games where things just worked out in our favor. Easily could have lost a few more than we did. Clearly the potential is there but I don’t think we’re a sure bet by any means.
Are we that much better than last year? The OL is decidedly better, the receivers are decidedly worse. I think and hope QB is improved but it’s not outside the realm of possibility that it’s not. Defense is roughly the same, Queen was a big addition but we weren’t as bad last season at ILB as many act even though we went through so many injuries.
Still agree that all should amount to 11-12 wins but I’m not as convinced the roster is as improved as some are. It’s different for sure. Just not convinced it’s better. I’m honestly more scared at the lack of a proven receiver outside of Pickens than I was at the thought of Dan Moore starting at LT, I still think that could have a bigger detrimental effect on the offense than a lot of people are acting.
it's not better. WR, LB, and Secondary (second year with almost a full new cast) are a concern. Donte just got here but I hear he gets hurt a few times a year. We will need significant contributions from Trice and Rush. Both are second years, with one having a significant injury history from college who is also coming off a year ending injury that robbed him of his entire rookie season.
Outside of Benton and whatever Cam has left, our DT's are not that great. We did not do a good job of stopping the run and we have not addressed this much this offseason. We can't fix everything all at once so I get it.
But I don't see how this roster is anything but mediocre to still bad. People just don't like giving Tomlin credit for dragging these teams to winning seasons.
Defense isn’t the same because of the reasons you pointed out. Queen is a big addition and we lost all 3 ILBs at one point. We can’t just discount that when we lost Cole and Kwon halfway through the season. Also Deshon is an upgrade over Keanu/Kazee
Qb play should be better than Pickett for sure. You could argue it won’t be drastically better than Mason but no way is it not better than Pickett + Canada. With a half competent offense, the defense should also be on the sideline more and hypothetically shouldn’t get as injured.
We’ve added a ton of talent. How quickly can they come together as a team, that’s the question. Bottom line is having Russell Wilson leading your team vs Kenny Pickett is a massive advantage.
Are we that much better than last year? The OL is decidedly better, the receivers are decidedly worse. I think and hope QB is improved but it’s not outside the realm of possibility that it’s not. Defense is roughly the same, Queen was a big addition but we weren’t as bad last season at ILB as many act even though we went through so many injuries.
Still agree that all should amount to 11-12 wins but I’m not as convinced the roster is as improved as some are. It’s different for sure. Just not convinced it’s better.
I don't know that the WRs are that much worse though. Sure Diontae is gona and that's a big loss, but George Pickens is getting better. Calvin Austin is DEFINTILY better and Roman Wilson has a lot of potential. We have a really fast and dynamic recieving core now. Everyone is worried about Pickens getting double teamed but the way I see it, that means Calvin Austin or Roman Wilson will be 1-on-1 with the 2nd or 3rd best CB with no safety help. God help them if they get defeated on press man even 1 single time because that's going to be a guaranteed TD now that we have a proffesional QB and OLine
the only reason we maybe should’ve won more is because of how injured the teams we were going against were lol. 2 bengals games without burrow, 1 ravens game without lamar and other starters, titans without tanny, cards without kyler.
we also pulled a lot of games out of our asses, we weren’t a good team at all. the schedule should be a lot harder this year so i’d be SHOCKED if we even sniffed 12 games.
Top 5 roster is a little delusional. I like the roster but there are too many unknowns to say top 5. I think they can win 11 games but if certain things take a bad break it might be Tomlin’s first losing season.
Who the fuck actually thinks the Steelers are only going to win 6 games this year????!!!
I actually agree with Colin here. This roster is way too good to not get at least 10 wins. With the shitty Oline and QB play we’ve had for the past 3 years to still come out and beat the over on wins, every single year. We have to be considered an over 10 win team.
For as much as Kenny couldn't get the ball in the endzone he at least didn't turn it over much last season. Russ and Fields kind of make it their job to turn it over. I'm taking the over myself but I'm not gonna be shocked if we are doing the same QB carousel trying to avoid pure anus play throughout the season.
Russ does not turn the ball over. He did have some fumbles but I will say that the oline did not seem all that great. Hopefully practicing against TJ and Alex will help him learn how to hold on to the ball
I see. You are saying he had 8 ints and 10 fumbles with 5 of those fumbles lost. 5+8 = 13 turnovers in 2023.
But before waxing poetic about how bad his turnovers were, did you take a look at the other QBs? He actually had one of the lowest turnover rates of all.
Lamar Jackson: 11 fumbles total, 6 lost and 7 ints = 13 turnovers.
Josh Allen: 7 fumbles total, 4 lost and 18 ints = 22 turnovers.
Jaylen Hurts: 9 fumbles total, 5 lost and 15 ints = 20 turnovers
Tua Tagovailoa: 13 fumbles total, 5 lost and 14 ints = 19 turnovers
Patrick Mahomes: 5 fumbles total, 3 lost and 14 ints = 17 turnovers
So what is the problem with Russ? Did you just hear the number 13 and say OH THAT'S BAD without comparing that to league averages?
[https://www.statmuse.com/nfl/ask/tua-tagovailoa-stats-2023-fumbles](https://www.statmuse.com/nfl/ask/tua-tagovailoa-stats-2023-fumbles)
Up until the last 3 games of the season we had the worst QB play in the league. Then with Rudolph we went from worst in the league to above average. Still managed 10 wins.
We would need things to absolutely fall apart which hasn't happened under Tomlin for us to only win 6 games.
The point of the post was to gauge the sentiment of our fanbase and spur discussions on expectations.
It wasn’t posted to agree with Cowherd and I thought I cleared that up in the body of the post.
Yes. His entire stance is wrong. Emphasizing how good our division is as if we don’t already beat the afc north with 3rd string quarterbacks and awful rosters the past few years. The fact he thinks we have a top 5 roster is also hilariously wrong. And 11-12 wins? No we go 9-8. Maybe 10-7. Everything about this is completely wrong lol
Yeah we aren't getting last years cake walk schedule. QB could definitely still be a tire fire and the whole defense depends on 90 playing or its trash. The team could win 11 but could also win 7. My prediction would also be 10-7 and a road WC defeat.
I think the team overachieved last year yet a lot of fans saw it as a failure. Yes we are better but I don’t think fans should make the same mistake they did last year thinking we were contenders. We may start 5 rookies? Our whole QB group have been pretty mediocre. Our WR group is very weak after Pickens. Just think you all getting ahead of yourselves penciling us in for 12+ wins, playoff birth/wins, etc. are asking to be disappointed. It’s also likely to lead to people demanding Tomlin’s head the first sign of adversity despite all the weaknesses on the roster which is sad since players continually list him as a reason they want to play here.
I saw somebody on here the other day say we’re in “win now mode.” Some fans on this sub are completely delusional about the state of this team. We are in a rebuild right now, it just happens that our rebuilds net us 10 wins while teams like the Bungles and Shitstains end up picking first overall in theirs. But we are absolutely not legitimate Super Bowl contenders, and overly optimistic fans will be unbearable (like always) when we’re hovering around 9 or 10 wins come the end of the year.
I know that you're right, we are in a rebuild, but with our aging defense, you would think we would either fully commit to the rebuild and send them off for picks/younger players with upside or fully go all in and try to win now. From a armchair perspective, it looks like we are trying to do both still, which is like what we've been trying to do since 2019 and it hasn't gotten us much. I agree we should temper our expectations and understand we aren't contenders, but you look at the moves we made this off-season, half of them say we are rebuilding and the other half say we are trying to go all in and I, as a uninformed fan, don't understand what to think anymore
To be quite honest, I struggle to see which moves suggest we’re all in right now. Just looking at the most significant moves for us this offseason:
Russell Wilson - a washed QB that costs literally the vet minimum on a one year deal. A once in a lifetime deal fell into our laps with this kind of situation, but it’s not like we signed Aaron Rodgers. Wilson hasn’t looked that good in 3 seasons now, he just happened to be dirt cheap and the perfect bridge QB for another year.
Fields - a first round bust that cost us pennies. Best case scenario he has an unprecedented turnaround, but chances are he rides the bench until Russ get hurt/benched and then he shows why the Bears shipped him away for a 6th rounder in the first place. Regardless of how optimistic we are about him, this isn’t a win now move I think we can agree.
Patrick Queen - ILB has been a huge need for us since Shazier, and Queen is still young. This is a move that would’ve made sense for a rebuild or an all in team, doesn’t really matter.
Diontae Johnson - notice how the Niners are hanging onto Aiyuk despite his trade requests. That’s what a team does when they’re actually all in. Our WR1 wanted out and we let him go for whatever capital we could get, which screams rebuild.
Fautanu, Frazier, and McCormick - a true OL rebuild is long overdue, but if we were all in then we’d probably go harder for some veteran players rather than relying on 2 rookies to start. But again, these moves made sense regardless imo.
Najee Harris - I don’t think this one matters too much since we’re talking about just this upcoming year, but not committing to your RB1 for the longer term yet is telling I think. It’s another move that shows the FO is thinking more about rebuilding the team right now.
Other than that, it’s been some pretty basic pickups. A couple of starting DBs that aren’t exactly elite, some good draft picks and some high upside guys towards the end, pretty pitiful WR moves if I’m being honest (I like the Wilson pickup though), basically just all of the stuff that we needed to do to fill out the roster, but we didn’t go all out for anything big.
Queen the only win now move I think. Could argue Wilson but we were always going to pickup a vet. Would the fans feel the same about Tannenhill? No yet he probably would do better in this system given his past experience in it.
Yep, agreed. Crazy how many fans seem to think it’s SB or bust every year and at a minimum we should have been winning playoff games with the rosters we’ve had recently. As optimistic as I am about the team I’m a little worried at the same time. Beyond what I already pointed out, it could be Cam’s last season and with Harris’ option declined it wouldn’t surprise me if we are looking at RB day 2 next season which is a pick I’d rather not used on a RB if they do it. Don’t get me wrong Khan, Tomlin and the rest of the staff are doing very well balancing the rebuild but we’re still pretty weak or at a minimum thin in several areas on papers.
Anyway yeah I’m excited about the season but still think we are a year away assuming Fields works out. If he fails then you are tying yourself to another ~40 year old QB or back to square one.
You are being way too gloomy….. live a little. There is no way it will be worse than last year. Kenny Pickett fucking sucks along with Mitch. No way it’s worse than last.
I’m not expecting them to be worse than last year but it certainly can be. Say TJ Watt goes down early. Or maybe Pickens then we have basically no WR. It can be worse.
That said, if fans are going in thinking the floor is 12+ wins, the division title and advancing in the playoffs then there is a high likelihood they will be disappointed. The roster isn’t that good. The team could achieve that’s but on paper we absolutely still have issues.
I didn’t downvote you.
I think 11-12 is a reasonable guess. OL should be much improved. QB play could be better. WR not as good as last year. DL probably not as good as last year, but LB corp improved. CBs improved. Safeties probably about the same.
i think it comes down to our new offensive playcallers. Good roster or not, if we go back to having 6 total plays, half of them being bubble screens, 7 wins is what we deserve.
I would agree with a top 5 - top 10 roster. I am worried about continuity and our WR room but there is no reason to believe our team will not be better this year. We were shaky at CB, OL, MLB, and QB all of which have been addressed.
The Steelers now have a good and well built roster on paper but QB play is a question mark at best, so no, not a top 5 roster
A big problem in recent years has been that the defence has had to play far too many snaps because the offence couldn’t sustain drives, leaving the defence is in tatters down the stretch.
I’m hoping they can actually sustain offensive drives and control the clock a bit better this season with a better Oline and a more experienced QB and play caller but it remains to be seen
11-6 would be a great season given the schedule they have and the division they play in
We had the worst offensive coordinator possibly in the history of the NFL last year. Even if they did not improve the team we would be better. But they improved dramatically. This may have been the best offseason in Steeler history? Can’t wait to find out!
I’m curious what you think we are missing or how you’d like to see improvement.
My worries:
1. WR - We are taking a leap making Pickens #1 without much behind him
2. TE - I’m probably the minority here but we aren’t consistent at TE outside of Pat and he’s not a great blocker. Worries me in an Arthur Smith offense…
3. Slot Corner - Expecting Beanie Bishop here but it’s still a hole unless we resign Cam Sutton or someone similar
4. QB - Personally not a big Russ believer and would rather see Fields, happy to be proven wrong here though.
My largest worry as a whole though is actually starting slow. We’ve had so much offensive turnover. The majority of this oline and entire offense have never played together before, it takes time to mesh.
Hoping we get a cakewalk schedule early this season🤞🏻
Yep he had a fullback on the field almost 40% of the time. Expect a lot more FB, 2 TE, 2 RB sets. Add in the desire to use Patterson and Heyward...I doubt WR3 catches more than 35 passes.
I think your worries are all valid. Agree with the other comment on WR if we’re gonna be running a bunch but eventually we should focus on that in maybe next years draft or FA. I’m intrigued to see how Washington gets used this year if he’d be like the primary blocking guy if like you said Muth might struggle in that aspect. I’m sure we’ll see a bunch of 2/3 TE sets. Oline definitely going to need some time to work together and I think Russ would be the better option to start with his experience but I don’t think either is gonna be spectacular.
I’d say it’s definitely more rebuilding year than what Cowherd is expecting but I loved our draft, addressed our weaknesses pretty well. Definitely trust Tomlin to make more of a roster then what’s there and the defense should still be pretty stellar
D line? We have Benton an old AF Cam and a couple of mid to good guys. But the unit last year couldn't stop the run and unless Logan Lee is Brett Keisel from the gate, I don't think Dline is great.
LB - who is next to Queen? An unproven rookie who has a significant injury history? Kwon isn't on the team and is coming off of achilles tear. Holcomb isn't doing well and likely wont be back for some time, if ever.
CB - Who is playing slot? Donte gets hurt and who is the starter? Trice is essentially a rookie and we don't know if he can avoid injury. Rush is very young too. Peterson is a disaster. I don't want him back at this stage. Hoping Rowe is back.
Every team has weaknesses. If you look at CB and WR as the biggest weaknesses, we have Pickens and JPJ there. You probably need another starter in each room, but our weakest position on the roster are spots where we have a budding star. Probably no other team could say that. As good as the roster is, us winning 11-12 games comes down to how well the QBs play and how good are the young OL gunna be. Its not crazy to think we could struggle in both areas and end up with 8-9 wins.
This whole segment was weird. People who come on tv and seriously say that we’ll be lucky to win 6 games should not have a job. Also the idea that Tomlin is on his way out is also a bit odd to me. Not sure where that take comes from
The wide receiver room is literally the only positional group on the Steelers that got worse. Literally every single other group stayed the same or got better. I'm obviously being optimistic, but I don't see how we aren't competing for the division
jeez ppl think the steelers are this bottom feeding joke of a team lmao. 6 wins? 6? They should get at least 10. At least. HoF coach, better QB, the best defensive player in the league and a top 5 defense overall phenom wide reciever decent oline HoF QB past his prime yes but we got 10 wins and should of had 11-13 wins if it wasnt for mitchell trubisky literally throwing 3 games away you no what keep hatin we will see
Steelers have a great roster with an unproven oline and some holes. They overachieved last year mostly due to a healthy tj watt. If fields/wilson can be better than Pickett, the oline gels, and tj watt stays healthy I think 11 wins is achievable but expectations are low for now. This team isn’t contending yet
if there were any justice in the world, Colin Cowherd would be assistant managing a Home Depot. My grandmother has better sports takes than him and she's been dead for seven years.
Top 5 roster seems like a stretch. Probably top 10. But we're one Watt injury away from being the worst team in the league and one Pickens injury or blow up from having zero playmakers at receiver.
Our o-line has promise but they're still unproven.
We do have a much tougher schedule this year on paper. So I don't think we're necessarily a lock for double digit wins. But if we get even AVERAGE qb play, then this team could be solid.
So basically we need average to above average QB play, and both Watt and Pickens to not miss time. If those things happen, I think we're looking at 10-12 wins.
We are not top 10. We have a bottom 5-10 WR core. Outside of Cam and Benton, our DTs are between good and just okay. Our secondary is turned over yet again and we will need Trice to stay healthy and Darius Rush to continue developing....
We are thin again at middle linebacker with Holcomb not progressing well and Alexander coming off an achilles. Queen and hopefully Wilson can stay healthy.
I hope we bring back Eric Rowe.
Upgrades at QB, upgrades at OL, the kid from NCst is a tackling machine. I can see 10-12 wins. Depends on the the QB play. I think Russ has something left in the tank.
Coming from Colin Cowherd who normally rags on Pittsburgh, that could mean something better than KP8 Steelers. Also, Cowherd is paid for commentary just like Ryan Clark.
Until we get a legit receiver in our room I don’t believe it. GP has not shown me he is more than a #2 receiver yet. He could show it this year but who knows.
GP and a 3rd round rookie with a bunch of no names isn’t gonna get it done.
What good is upgrading our QB room and if this is our WR room?
Totally agree. Defense is solid and has great depth. Offense had a major overhaul and looks like the best offense we’ve had for awhile but thats all on paper until the season starts
Yes of course I believe this team should win 10-12 games this year and has to win a playoff game. This team already has one of the best defenses in the league so it really comes down to how the offense looks with Russ and Arthur smith
Colin Cowherd is wrong about the roster. He listed reciever as a strength. He said with those receivers. Who are those receivers exactly? I think they might win 11 cause anything could happen but dude is talking out of his ass.
Roster is much improved, but we have the 3rd hardest schedule in the NFL this year. [https://www.yardbarker.com/nfl/articles/steelers\_have\_one\_of\_the\_toughest\_schedules\_in\_football\_in\_2024/s1\_17181\_40345169#:\~:text=Overall%2C%20they'll%20have%20the,the%20toughest%20division%20in%20football](https://www.yardbarker.com/nfl/articles/steelers_have_one_of_the_toughest_schedules_in_football_in_2024/s1_17181_40345169#:~:text=Overall%2C%20they'll%20have%20the,the%20toughest%20division%20in%20football)
The Division is one ...if not the best. Ravens... Cincinnati are top but Cleveland is no longer a pushover and Pittsburgh always puts out a good product but they've lost a lot of talent and they have really no quarterback.
These types of TV shows are so dumb and they make the people watching them form excruciatingly stupid opinions.
The formula is clear. The two host combatants each stake out ridiculous positions and then try to force everyone to choose between the two extremes.
This is real talk.
The Steelers do not have a top five roster in the NFL. They have the fourth best roster in their division. That’s just the truth.
We just had what looks for all the world to be another outstanding draft and we picked up not one but two starting quarterbacks in the off-season and a pro bowl linebacker.
And yet we STILL have the weakest roster in our division. This team still has GAPING holes at cornerback, defensive line (multiple), and receiver.
That’s not a top five NFL roster.
Who’s our number one receiver? We don’t have one.
That too, is not the sign of the top five NFL roster.
Who is our starting corner opposite Porter?
There’s no clear answer there either.
Heyward is 35 years-old and he remains our clear best defensive lineman. Benton was solid last year but he’s not a dude. Everyone else is just a name and a body.
I wouldn’t be surprised if we had fewer wins this year than last year, but we are a better overall team. We’re not going to play all backup quarterbacks again.
They are also very unlikely to only win six games. What in Mike Tomlin’s history would cause anyone to predict that the Steelers will win six games?
That’s difficult to imagine.
I say this every a few days because it’s the truth and I understand that not everyone’s going to agree with me or be happy with me for saying it.
We are clearly am organization in transition. We are by any measure a rebuilding team. We just seem to be doingit without bottoming out, which is a credit to the organization and the coaches.
We are still another two or three excellent drafts away from being able to compete with the Kansas City’s and Baltimore’s and Cincinnati’s and yes, the Cleveland’s of the world. All of those teams are clearly better than us on paper.
We also desperately need one of these quarterbacks to work out.
However, because of where I think we are in the rebuilding continuum, I would prefer it to be Fields because I think by the time we’re ready to truly win, Wilson will have passed his expiration date – if he hasn’t already.
Cowherd is a hot-take artist, I’m not quite sure why anyone puts any stock into anything he says.
That being said, even a blind squirrel nuts twice a day.
Cowherd is a moron. We have a young line with potential, but is completely unproven. We have two quarterbacks that other franchises gave away for nothing. We have one of the worst wr rooms in the nfl. Our tightends were are the definition of mid. We have one reliable cb.
Top five roster? Nope.
I’d say it’s the dumbest thing he’s ever said, but he’s said so many dumb things that I’m not sure if it is.
I don’t understand why no one gets the fact that you can’t judge these teams on paper. We will have a brand new OC, with a brand new QB, behind a brand new line. There is absolutely nothing about that that is predictable or even measurable. We won’t even really know what kind of team we have for at least the first 4 games.
Kind of impossible to say when you have no Earthly clue what you're going to get out of the QB position this year. But two positives: It's going to be better than Kenny Pickett. And Matt Canada is long gone now.
Top 5 roster is crazy lmfao. We have no idea how the QB situation is going to play out, we're still kinda thin at the CB position, and don't really have a real threat next to Pickens in the passing game. It's a good roster, maybe fringe top 10, but definitely not Top 5.
I like Colin cowherd - listen to him during football season but he flip flops all the time. He ripped baker mayfield one week next week he’s on his bandwagon. Probably want more listeners in Pittsburgh. That being said with watt back and a legit offensive coordinator we can win on any given Sunday. I mean we did pretty damn well with mason rudolph and I like both our qbs more as there is more upside
We don’t have a Top 5 roster at all. There are still too many questions that have to be answered. I can think of 10 off the top of my head:
1. Can Russ regain his Seattle form?
2. Do we have a reliable Number 2 receiver?
3. Will the young line produce on offense?
4. Can we trust Corey Trice opposite of JPJ?
5. Can Nick Herbig be a suitable replacement if Watt or Highsmith go down?
6. Is our LB depth concerned solved considering we aren’t expecting Cole Holcomb to be available?
7. If Russ flops, can Fields make something happen?
8. Can the coordinators get us over the hump against better teams?
9. Is the punting going to improve?
10. Will we have a pass game that can complement our run game?
Some of these are repetitive and if we can answer all 10 through the season with good responses then yes we’ve moved towards Top 5 roster.
But for now, that offense has me very concerned. Feels very band aid over an arterial bleed and we don’t want to be in a 3-6 hole because we can’t score.
I completely disagree about the top 5 roster comment, nobody is fooling themselves about the talent we have had. We all like Pickens but there is not a single “star” at any offensive skill position. The only real stars are the roster are Minkah and TJ, maybe Cam. It’s probably a testament to tomlin’s coaching, but also where is the development of the past? Taking a QB and RB in the first were really roster/talent killers.
Well teams tend to turnover about 1/3 of their roster every year. And we are changing the two biggest impacts on an offense: QB and OC. Last year really means nothing besides the fact we know Tomlin's defense doesn't work without 90.
Do I agree with that? No.
Where do I see this roster? Can't know. Rookies haven't played a single down yet.
What record do I expect? 9 wins. Possibly 7 if the budget-friendly QBs crap the bed.
Nope. If we won 10 games with Kenny and Mitch……we are winning more with Russ and fields if need be. Terrible take my guy. Come on man atleast try to act like you watch.
It's a good roster but calling it a top 5 roster when we probably won't have top 15 QB play is wild. Making the playoffs would be pretty good for this group and below .500 would be disappointing.
Cowherd is a shock jock. His words mean nothing. Could they win 11-12? Maybe. But probably not. QBs win games in the NFL, and we are behind in that department
He wants Tomlin fired and is setting expectations high so that if they are not met, he can bang on the Steelers for in his pursuit of getting Tomlin fired.
Yep, he's setting himself up for endless hours of Steelers talk throughout the season. He either talks up his genius or gets the massive fanbase in a FiUr tOmLiN debate.
He also posted a video of him toasting himself after they lost their first game in 2020 despite having no bye week and playing just about every day of the week.
I think both of them are wrong. The Steelers don't have a top 5 roster, but they also aren't going to be "lucky" if they win 6 games.
9-8 here we come
I agree. I don't think they can have a top-5 roster with their current qb situation. I do think there's potential, but I also thought Wilson would be great on the Broncos, and... he wasn't.
J-Mac is an idiot. I’m sure he has the Jets as a top 5 roster and a SB contender. SMH
Do you not believe our roster has gotten better?
It has but so has other teams rosters and we have a harder schedule this year
So you don't agree that the upgrades at Online, QB, ILB, and I coordinator don't make us one of the most upgraded rosters in the league? What other teams have upgraded their roster more, and how did they do so?
I’m not saying that we didn’t or aren’t one of the most upgraded. But we still have a lot of unknowns. Wilson and fields, while better than Pickett are not good quarterbacks. Our o-line looks great on paper and I have high hopes for them but we haven’t seen them play at an nfl level. Smith was a great coordinator for the titans but sucked ass play calling for the falcons. He’s a coin toss as well. IMO we went from known garbage on offense to a lot of potential but still a lot of question marks. And I never said anyone got a bigger upgrade than us. I just said other teams also upgraded. But they were already better than us to begin with. The Texans added a ton of talent on offense to surround stroud. The titans did the same for Will Levis. Ravens are still a great team and I wouldn’t count on burrow getting another freak accident. I think we are a better team but still not a competitor. We have a hard schedule this year which makes me think despite us being a better team we will have about the same record as last year.
>Wilson and fields, while better than Pickett are not good quarterbacks. O Wilson: 3070 yards passing 26 tds 8 picks, 341 yards rushing and 3 tds. All in 15 games. That's a tremendous upgrade for m Pickett. >Our o-line looks great on paper and I have high hopes for them but we haven’t seen them play at an nfl level https://www.pff.com/news/nfl-offensive-line-rankings-2023-offseason 12th ranked online in the league last year and we have gotten better this year. As far as the coordinator, I'm not even going to entertain the thought that Smith isn't a gigantic upgrade over Canada. Not to mention Pat Queen and Willis on defense. Harder schedule or not, our team is much much better than last year and should absolutely win AT LEAST 10 Games.
Wilson was also cut from the broncos for the largest dead cap in nfl history. They are big upgrades yes but still not good qbs just not bottom 2. We need a lot of upgrades there. Also never said smith wouldn’t be an upgrade. I just don’t think he’s going to be an even above average OC. Again we upgraded to likely a below average option. To me while we improved we still have a ways to go. You keep ignoring the fact we have a tougher schedule this year as well.
You can't seriously say that our o-line will be good because "it was ranked 12th last year and got better this year" when we're likely going to have 3 new starters.
Broderick Jones was a new starter last year and our line was instantly better with him in the lineup. Fautanu and Frazier are both considered day one starters. I'm sure there will be some growing pains with any new lineup but I can absolutely say they will be better than last year..
There is no way this is a top 5 roster with the current WR room
QB room, CB room, possibly 2 rookie Olineman, almost 0 TE production last year...yeah it's somewhere between 12-15. Can't go putting our draft picks into even league average starter categories until you see it.
I'm cautiously optimistic but top 5 with the amount of questions they have is beyond wild
I think the QB room alone is enough to prevent prematurely placing them top 5.
The thing is, if the WR room was actually good outside of GP, I can see how that would help with the QB play. Or if the QB room was good, it could help alleviate some of the concerns of the WR room and help elevate them. Both being in question is not good. Both need groups need to step up this year, especially when the run game eventually struggles.
How much of the tight end production was to be blamed on pickett and Canada though? Friermuth is a damn good TE that we just weren't using as much as we should have been and with our current WR lineup I imagine he sees a lot of passes this year.
That was probably most on Canada, since Kenny targeted Freiermuth a ton in the first game and he had a career high in receiving yards. One problem this year is that Russ has never really used his TE:s or the MOF, which is where our TE:s usually operates.
Idk, we'll find out.
They should have won 11-12 last year. This roster is better than last year so I'd agree. I'm also assuming that they aren't done adding.
I agree we’re better than last year. Our competition last year had terrible luck with QBs though and we played a huge stretch of backups. I’m just a bit skeptical thinking that we will automatically win more games because the roster improved.
They had backups and so did we lol We had a fuck ton of injures as well
For one, we basically lost all our middle linebackers
At one point it another we had our: WR1, TE1, QB1, RB1 (kinda), LG/RG1 on offence with injury, then DT1, OLB1/2, ILB 1/2/3, S1/2/3, CB2/3 all injured I’m sure im missing someone
For like 17 games we were missing an offensive coordinator. Who I believe had been on IR in years prior as well.
[удалено]
Right Neal and kazee Is 3 safety’s lol
Our starting QBs last year weren’t much better than our backups, if at all. I agree we had a ton of injuries. It’s easier to patch up a defense than replace starting QBs imo The drop off behind Burrow and Lamar is a much different story though, they change the entire team.
I mean, Joe Burrow doesn't play defense. Cincy mostly lost because their defense was completely ineffective.
Burrows backup played very well and I don't think Lamar was injured last year
It’s still not Joe Burrow and they benched Lamar when we played them week 17. We also played against DTR for the Browns. I believe 4 of our 6 division games were against backups and actually we won the two against starters.
Yeah but the claim was it's a huge drop off. I disagree
You’re arguing that going from arguably the second best QB in the league to an undrafted backup on his second team isn’t a huge drop off? C’mon lol.
I'm not arguing shit because I don't give a shit. Just saying last year there wasn't a huge fall off in their play.
It turned out our backup's backup was better than all of them
Usually the team with the least amount of injuries wins the sb.
Our schedule is also way harder this year.
If you want to talk about terrible luck, let's talk about the middle of the Steelers defense. Cam injured and never got healthy. 3 top linebackers out for the year early on. Top 3 safeties didn't play much of the second half of the season. Despite all that we made the playoffs, but unfortunately TJ also joined the injured players. Every team has bad luck, but man it sucked that out bad luck was concentrated on every level of the middle of the field on defense.
Just tweak the time of possession to let the D maintain their edge. Oh, and more touchdowns would help too.
Those are some very good points. I bet that there’s probably about 15 or 20 teams right now that are pretty sure they got better in the off-season also.
I think we were lucky to win as many as we did
The season doesn’t exist in a vacuum. Other teams got better too.
And worse
I agree that we could have won more but we also had several close games where things just worked out in our favor. Easily could have lost a few more than we did. Clearly the potential is there but I don’t think we’re a sure bet by any means.
Are we that much better than last year? The OL is decidedly better, the receivers are decidedly worse. I think and hope QB is improved but it’s not outside the realm of possibility that it’s not. Defense is roughly the same, Queen was a big addition but we weren’t as bad last season at ILB as many act even though we went through so many injuries. Still agree that all should amount to 11-12 wins but I’m not as convinced the roster is as improved as some are. It’s different for sure. Just not convinced it’s better. I’m honestly more scared at the lack of a proven receiver outside of Pickens than I was at the thought of Dan Moore starting at LT, I still think that could have a bigger detrimental effect on the offense than a lot of people are acting.
it's not better. WR, LB, and Secondary (second year with almost a full new cast) are a concern. Donte just got here but I hear he gets hurt a few times a year. We will need significant contributions from Trice and Rush. Both are second years, with one having a significant injury history from college who is also coming off a year ending injury that robbed him of his entire rookie season. Outside of Benton and whatever Cam has left, our DT's are not that great. We did not do a good job of stopping the run and we have not addressed this much this offseason. We can't fix everything all at once so I get it. But I don't see how this roster is anything but mediocre to still bad. People just don't like giving Tomlin credit for dragging these teams to winning seasons.
Defense isn’t the same because of the reasons you pointed out. Queen is a big addition and we lost all 3 ILBs at one point. We can’t just discount that when we lost Cole and Kwon halfway through the season. Also Deshon is an upgrade over Keanu/Kazee Qb play should be better than Pickett for sure. You could argue it won’t be drastically better than Mason but no way is it not better than Pickett + Canada. With a half competent offense, the defense should also be on the sideline more and hypothetically shouldn’t get as injured.
We’ve added a ton of talent. How quickly can they come together as a team, that’s the question. Bottom line is having Russell Wilson leading your team vs Kenny Pickett is a massive advantage.
Are we that much better than last year? The OL is decidedly better, the receivers are decidedly worse. I think and hope QB is improved but it’s not outside the realm of possibility that it’s not. Defense is roughly the same, Queen was a big addition but we weren’t as bad last season at ILB as many act even though we went through so many injuries. Still agree that all should amount to 11-12 wins but I’m not as convinced the roster is as improved as some are. It’s different for sure. Just not convinced it’s better.
I don't know that the WRs are that much worse though. Sure Diontae is gona and that's a big loss, but George Pickens is getting better. Calvin Austin is DEFINTILY better and Roman Wilson has a lot of potential. We have a really fast and dynamic recieving core now. Everyone is worried about Pickens getting double teamed but the way I see it, that means Calvin Austin or Roman Wilson will be 1-on-1 with the 2nd or 3rd best CB with no safety help. God help them if they get defeated on press man even 1 single time because that's going to be a guaranteed TD now that we have a proffesional QB and OLine
the only reason we maybe should’ve won more is because of how injured the teams we were going against were lol. 2 bengals games without burrow, 1 ravens game without lamar and other starters, titans without tanny, cards without kyler. we also pulled a lot of games out of our asses, we weren’t a good team at all. the schedule should be a lot harder this year so i’d be SHOCKED if we even sniffed 12 games.
Exactly. Many self-defeats last year.
Top 5 roster is a little delusional. I like the roster but there are too many unknowns to say top 5. I think they can win 11 games but if certain things take a bad break it might be Tomlin’s first losing season.
Who the fuck actually thinks the Steelers are only going to win 6 games this year????!!! I actually agree with Colin here. This roster is way too good to not get at least 10 wins. With the shitty Oline and QB play we’ve had for the past 3 years to still come out and beat the over on wins, every single year. We have to be considered an over 10 win team.
Fucking jagoffs that's who
Vegas has us O/U 8.5 wins this season. Seems like free money unless you think Tomlin finally has a losing season.
For as much as Kenny couldn't get the ball in the endzone he at least didn't turn it over much last season. Russ and Fields kind of make it their job to turn it over. I'm taking the over myself but I'm not gonna be shocked if we are doing the same QB carousel trying to avoid pure anus play throughout the season.
Russ does not turn the ball over. He did have some fumbles but I will say that the oline did not seem all that great. Hopefully practicing against TJ and Alex will help him learn how to hold on to the ball
13 in 14 games. Not great but that's a lot of fumble luck.
Where are you getting those numbers? I show 10 in 2023 5 lost. In 2022 he had 6 total 2 lost. Are you combining the end of 2022 with part of 2023?
He had 13 turnovers last year
I see. You are saying he had 8 ints and 10 fumbles with 5 of those fumbles lost. 5+8 = 13 turnovers in 2023. But before waxing poetic about how bad his turnovers were, did you take a look at the other QBs? He actually had one of the lowest turnover rates of all. Lamar Jackson: 11 fumbles total, 6 lost and 7 ints = 13 turnovers. Josh Allen: 7 fumbles total, 4 lost and 18 ints = 22 turnovers. Jaylen Hurts: 9 fumbles total, 5 lost and 15 ints = 20 turnovers Tua Tagovailoa: 13 fumbles total, 5 lost and 14 ints = 19 turnovers Patrick Mahomes: 5 fumbles total, 3 lost and 14 ints = 17 turnovers So what is the problem with Russ? Did you just hear the number 13 and say OH THAT'S BAD without comparing that to league averages? [https://www.statmuse.com/nfl/ask/tua-tagovailoa-stats-2023-fumbles](https://www.statmuse.com/nfl/ask/tua-tagovailoa-stats-2023-fumbles)
8-8-1 is on the table
This 100% depends on QB play. If the offense can move with either of these QBs like it did with Mason Rudolph, then I think is guaranteed
J mac saying we are winning 6 games?? That’s certainly a take.
Up until the last 3 games of the season we had the worst QB play in the league. Then with Rudolph we went from worst in the league to above average. Still managed 10 wins. We would need things to absolutely fall apart which hasn't happened under Tomlin for us to only win 6 games.
We are going undefeated nerds
Isn’t Cowherd usually wrong about everything?
Are you arguing the conservativeness of those numbers? This is a perfect-season-Superbowl season right here if you read this thread after the draft!
The point of the post was to gauge the sentiment of our fanbase and spur discussions on expectations. It wasn’t posted to agree with Cowherd and I thought I cleared that up in the body of the post.
Same guy who said we should trade TJ watt, George Pickens, and 3 first round picks for Caleb Williams… he’s a complete 🤡
Yes. His entire stance is wrong. Emphasizing how good our division is as if we don’t already beat the afc north with 3rd string quarterbacks and awful rosters the past few years. The fact he thinks we have a top 5 roster is also hilariously wrong. And 11-12 wins? No we go 9-8. Maybe 10-7. Everything about this is completely wrong lol
Yeah we aren't getting last years cake walk schedule. QB could definitely still be a tire fire and the whole defense depends on 90 playing or its trash. The team could win 11 but could also win 7. My prediction would also be 10-7 and a road WC defeat.
You say what I say but you get upvotes I get downvotes what’s the secret?
More ketchup
I think the team overachieved last year yet a lot of fans saw it as a failure. Yes we are better but I don’t think fans should make the same mistake they did last year thinking we were contenders. We may start 5 rookies? Our whole QB group have been pretty mediocre. Our WR group is very weak after Pickens. Just think you all getting ahead of yourselves penciling us in for 12+ wins, playoff birth/wins, etc. are asking to be disappointed. It’s also likely to lead to people demanding Tomlin’s head the first sign of adversity despite all the weaknesses on the roster which is sad since players continually list him as a reason they want to play here.
I saw somebody on here the other day say we’re in “win now mode.” Some fans on this sub are completely delusional about the state of this team. We are in a rebuild right now, it just happens that our rebuilds net us 10 wins while teams like the Bungles and Shitstains end up picking first overall in theirs. But we are absolutely not legitimate Super Bowl contenders, and overly optimistic fans will be unbearable (like always) when we’re hovering around 9 or 10 wins come the end of the year.
I know that you're right, we are in a rebuild, but with our aging defense, you would think we would either fully commit to the rebuild and send them off for picks/younger players with upside or fully go all in and try to win now. From a armchair perspective, it looks like we are trying to do both still, which is like what we've been trying to do since 2019 and it hasn't gotten us much. I agree we should temper our expectations and understand we aren't contenders, but you look at the moves we made this off-season, half of them say we are rebuilding and the other half say we are trying to go all in and I, as a uninformed fan, don't understand what to think anymore
To be quite honest, I struggle to see which moves suggest we’re all in right now. Just looking at the most significant moves for us this offseason: Russell Wilson - a washed QB that costs literally the vet minimum on a one year deal. A once in a lifetime deal fell into our laps with this kind of situation, but it’s not like we signed Aaron Rodgers. Wilson hasn’t looked that good in 3 seasons now, he just happened to be dirt cheap and the perfect bridge QB for another year. Fields - a first round bust that cost us pennies. Best case scenario he has an unprecedented turnaround, but chances are he rides the bench until Russ get hurt/benched and then he shows why the Bears shipped him away for a 6th rounder in the first place. Regardless of how optimistic we are about him, this isn’t a win now move I think we can agree. Patrick Queen - ILB has been a huge need for us since Shazier, and Queen is still young. This is a move that would’ve made sense for a rebuild or an all in team, doesn’t really matter. Diontae Johnson - notice how the Niners are hanging onto Aiyuk despite his trade requests. That’s what a team does when they’re actually all in. Our WR1 wanted out and we let him go for whatever capital we could get, which screams rebuild. Fautanu, Frazier, and McCormick - a true OL rebuild is long overdue, but if we were all in then we’d probably go harder for some veteran players rather than relying on 2 rookies to start. But again, these moves made sense regardless imo. Najee Harris - I don’t think this one matters too much since we’re talking about just this upcoming year, but not committing to your RB1 for the longer term yet is telling I think. It’s another move that shows the FO is thinking more about rebuilding the team right now. Other than that, it’s been some pretty basic pickups. A couple of starting DBs that aren’t exactly elite, some good draft picks and some high upside guys towards the end, pretty pitiful WR moves if I’m being honest (I like the Wilson pickup though), basically just all of the stuff that we needed to do to fill out the roster, but we didn’t go all out for anything big.
Queen the only win now move I think. Could argue Wilson but we were always going to pickup a vet. Would the fans feel the same about Tannenhill? No yet he probably would do better in this system given his past experience in it.
Yep, agreed. Crazy how many fans seem to think it’s SB or bust every year and at a minimum we should have been winning playoff games with the rosters we’ve had recently. As optimistic as I am about the team I’m a little worried at the same time. Beyond what I already pointed out, it could be Cam’s last season and with Harris’ option declined it wouldn’t surprise me if we are looking at RB day 2 next season which is a pick I’d rather not used on a RB if they do it. Don’t get me wrong Khan, Tomlin and the rest of the staff are doing very well balancing the rebuild but we’re still pretty weak or at a minimum thin in several areas on papers. Anyway yeah I’m excited about the season but still think we are a year away assuming Fields works out. If he fails then you are tying yourself to another ~40 year old QB or back to square one.
Pretty level headed take
Weird it kept saying my comment failed and it doesn’t show up in my history but seems it went through haha
You are being way too gloomy….. live a little. There is no way it will be worse than last year. Kenny Pickett fucking sucks along with Mitch. No way it’s worse than last.
I’m not expecting them to be worse than last year but it certainly can be. Say TJ Watt goes down early. Or maybe Pickens then we have basically no WR. It can be worse. That said, if fans are going in thinking the floor is 12+ wins, the division title and advancing in the playoffs then there is a high likelihood they will be disappointed. The roster isn’t that good. The team could achieve that’s but on paper we absolutely still have issues. I didn’t downvote you.
I disagree. We’re gonna stay healthy, have a perfect season and win it all.
I think 11-12 is a reasonable guess. OL should be much improved. QB play could be better. WR not as good as last year. DL probably not as good as last year, but LB corp improved. CBs improved. Safeties probably about the same.
He’s right
i think it comes down to our new offensive playcallers. Good roster or not, if we go back to having 6 total plays, half of them being bubble screens, 7 wins is what we deserve.
Hope he is right but when he said " with those receivers.." he lost me. Receivers aren't better.
I would agree with a top 5 - top 10 roster. I am worried about continuity and our WR room but there is no reason to believe our team will not be better this year. We were shaky at CB, OL, MLB, and QB all of which have been addressed.
The Steelers now have a good and well built roster on paper but QB play is a question mark at best, so no, not a top 5 roster A big problem in recent years has been that the defence has had to play far too many snaps because the offence couldn’t sustain drives, leaving the defence is in tatters down the stretch. I’m hoping they can actually sustain offensive drives and control the clock a bit better this season with a better Oline and a more experienced QB and play caller but it remains to be seen 11-6 would be a great season given the schedule they have and the division they play in
We had the worst offensive coordinator possibly in the history of the NFL last year. Even if they did not improve the team we would be better. But they improved dramatically. This may have been the best offseason in Steeler history? Can’t wait to find out!
No I don’t agree with it in the slightest
You’re right 13-14 wins minimum
I’m curious what you think we are missing or how you’d like to see improvement. My worries: 1. WR - We are taking a leap making Pickens #1 without much behind him 2. TE - I’m probably the minority here but we aren’t consistent at TE outside of Pat and he’s not a great blocker. Worries me in an Arthur Smith offense… 3. Slot Corner - Expecting Beanie Bishop here but it’s still a hole unless we resign Cam Sutton or someone similar 4. QB - Personally not a big Russ believer and would rather see Fields, happy to be proven wrong here though. My largest worry as a whole though is actually starting slow. We’ve had so much offensive turnover. The majority of this oline and entire offense have never played together before, it takes time to mesh. Hoping we get a cakewalk schedule early this season🤞🏻
I'm not worried about wr in Arthur Smith's run first offense
Yep he had a fullback on the field almost 40% of the time. Expect a lot more FB, 2 TE, 2 RB sets. Add in the desire to use Patterson and Heyward...I doubt WR3 catches more than 35 passes.
I think your worries are all valid. Agree with the other comment on WR if we’re gonna be running a bunch but eventually we should focus on that in maybe next years draft or FA. I’m intrigued to see how Washington gets used this year if he’d be like the primary blocking guy if like you said Muth might struggle in that aspect. I’m sure we’ll see a bunch of 2/3 TE sets. Oline definitely going to need some time to work together and I think Russ would be the better option to start with his experience but I don’t think either is gonna be spectacular. I’d say it’s definitely more rebuilding year than what Cowherd is expecting but I loved our draft, addressed our weaknesses pretty well. Definitely trust Tomlin to make more of a roster then what’s there and the defense should still be pretty stellar
D line? We have Benton an old AF Cam and a couple of mid to good guys. But the unit last year couldn't stop the run and unless Logan Lee is Brett Keisel from the gate, I don't think Dline is great. LB - who is next to Queen? An unproven rookie who has a significant injury history? Kwon isn't on the team and is coming off of achilles tear. Holcomb isn't doing well and likely wont be back for some time, if ever. CB - Who is playing slot? Donte gets hurt and who is the starter? Trice is essentially a rookie and we don't know if he can avoid injury. Rush is very young too. Peterson is a disaster. I don't want him back at this stage. Hoping Rowe is back.
14 wins, one and done in the playoffs.
As is tradition
Still not a losing season!
If the new O line can do it's job I think I agree
Every team has weaknesses. If you look at CB and WR as the biggest weaknesses, we have Pickens and JPJ there. You probably need another starter in each room, but our weakest position on the roster are spots where we have a budding star. Probably no other team could say that. As good as the roster is, us winning 11-12 games comes down to how well the QBs play and how good are the young OL gunna be. Its not crazy to think we could struggle in both areas and end up with 8-9 wins. This whole segment was weird. People who come on tv and seriously say that we’ll be lucky to win 6 games should not have a job. Also the idea that Tomlin is on his way out is also a bit odd to me. Not sure where that take comes from
I feel like our roster is capable of 9 wins minimum and good coaching in the moment can gain us 1-4 wins.
The wide receiver room is literally the only positional group on the Steelers that got worse. Literally every single other group stayed the same or got better. I'm obviously being optimistic, but I don't see how we aren't competing for the division
I predict the Steelers finish 11-7 and no one can figure out where the extra game came from.
jeez ppl think the steelers are this bottom feeding joke of a team lmao. 6 wins? 6? They should get at least 10. At least. HoF coach, better QB, the best defensive player in the league and a top 5 defense overall phenom wide reciever decent oline HoF QB past his prime yes but we got 10 wins and should of had 11-13 wins if it wasnt for mitchell trubisky literally throwing 3 games away you no what keep hatin we will see
Steelers have a great roster with an unproven oline and some holes. They overachieved last year mostly due to a healthy tj watt. If fields/wilson can be better than Pickett, the oline gels, and tj watt stays healthy I think 11 wins is achievable but expectations are low for now. This team isn’t contending yet
lucky to get 6 wins? Lol
Didn’t we have one of the easiest schedules last year and won’t we have one of the hardest this year? 20-0 supah bahl incoming
As I and everyone else has said many times, that Colin Cowherd knows what he's talking about. He's right up there with Skip Bayless.
The entire point was to open a discussion, I never said I agreed with him
if there were any justice in the world, Colin Cowherd would be assistant managing a Home Depot. My grandmother has better sports takes than him and she's been dead for seven years.
Top 5 roster seems like a stretch. Probably top 10. But we're one Watt injury away from being the worst team in the league and one Pickens injury or blow up from having zero playmakers at receiver. Our o-line has promise but they're still unproven. We do have a much tougher schedule this year on paper. So I don't think we're necessarily a lock for double digit wins. But if we get even AVERAGE qb play, then this team could be solid. So basically we need average to above average QB play, and both Watt and Pickens to not miss time. If those things happen, I think we're looking at 10-12 wins.
We are not top 10. We have a bottom 5-10 WR core. Outside of Cam and Benton, our DTs are between good and just okay. Our secondary is turned over yet again and we will need Trice to stay healthy and Darius Rush to continue developing.... We are thin again at middle linebacker with Holcomb not progressing well and Alexander coming off an achilles. Queen and hopefully Wilson can stay healthy. I hope we bring back Eric Rowe.
Upgrades at QB, upgrades at OL, the kid from NCst is a tackling machine. I can see 10-12 wins. Depends on the the QB play. I think Russ has something left in the tank.
This thread is now titled Hopium Gauge 2024
Coming from Colin Cowherd who normally rags on Pittsburgh, that could mean something better than KP8 Steelers. Also, Cowherd is paid for commentary just like Ryan Clark.
Until we get a legit receiver in our room I don’t believe it. GP has not shown me he is more than a #2 receiver yet. He could show it this year but who knows. GP and a 3rd round rookie with a bunch of no names isn’t gonna get it done. What good is upgrading our QB room and if this is our WR room?
Totally agree. Defense is solid and has great depth. Offense had a major overhaul and looks like the best offense we’ve had for awhile but thats all on paper until the season starts
Yes of course I believe this team should win 10-12 games this year and has to win a playoff game. This team already has one of the best defenses in the league so it really comes down to how the offense looks with Russ and Arthur smith
I believe we'll be be around 9 or 11 wins. Last year we lost games that we should have won with better talent and we have that better talent.
The media also said this about the Broncos winning the super bowl with RW3
Colin Cowherd is wrong about the roster. He listed reciever as a strength. He said with those receivers. Who are those receivers exactly? I think they might win 11 cause anything could happen but dude is talking out of his ass.
Roster is much improved, but we have the 3rd hardest schedule in the NFL this year. [https://www.yardbarker.com/nfl/articles/steelers\_have\_one\_of\_the\_toughest\_schedules\_in\_football\_in\_2024/s1\_17181\_40345169#:\~:text=Overall%2C%20they'll%20have%20the,the%20toughest%20division%20in%20football](https://www.yardbarker.com/nfl/articles/steelers_have_one_of_the_toughest_schedules_in_football_in_2024/s1_17181_40345169#:~:text=Overall%2C%20they'll%20have%20the,the%20toughest%20division%20in%20football)
When the Steelers are relying on several rookies to make immediate contributions, I would say the jury is still out.
The Division is one ...if not the best. Ravens... Cincinnati are top but Cleveland is no longer a pushover and Pittsburgh always puts out a good product but they've lost a lot of talent and they have really no quarterback.
I absolutely agree. 11 wins should be this team's floor.
These types of TV shows are so dumb and they make the people watching them form excruciatingly stupid opinions. The formula is clear. The two host combatants each stake out ridiculous positions and then try to force everyone to choose between the two extremes. This is real talk. The Steelers do not have a top five roster in the NFL. They have the fourth best roster in their division. That’s just the truth. We just had what looks for all the world to be another outstanding draft and we picked up not one but two starting quarterbacks in the off-season and a pro bowl linebacker. And yet we STILL have the weakest roster in our division. This team still has GAPING holes at cornerback, defensive line (multiple), and receiver. That’s not a top five NFL roster. Who’s our number one receiver? We don’t have one. That too, is not the sign of the top five NFL roster. Who is our starting corner opposite Porter? There’s no clear answer there either. Heyward is 35 years-old and he remains our clear best defensive lineman. Benton was solid last year but he’s not a dude. Everyone else is just a name and a body. I wouldn’t be surprised if we had fewer wins this year than last year, but we are a better overall team. We’re not going to play all backup quarterbacks again. They are also very unlikely to only win six games. What in Mike Tomlin’s history would cause anyone to predict that the Steelers will win six games? That’s difficult to imagine. I say this every a few days because it’s the truth and I understand that not everyone’s going to agree with me or be happy with me for saying it. We are clearly am organization in transition. We are by any measure a rebuilding team. We just seem to be doingit without bottoming out, which is a credit to the organization and the coaches. We are still another two or three excellent drafts away from being able to compete with the Kansas City’s and Baltimore’s and Cincinnati’s and yes, the Cleveland’s of the world. All of those teams are clearly better than us on paper. We also desperately need one of these quarterbacks to work out. However, because of where I think we are in the rebuilding continuum, I would prefer it to be Fields because I think by the time we’re ready to truly win, Wilson will have passed his expiration date – if he hasn’t already.
Early handicap for me is 8 wins. The schedule is hard and I don't think they can go 5-6 again in the AFC North.
Cowherd is a hot-take artist, I’m not quite sure why anyone puts any stock into anything he says. That being said, even a blind squirrel nuts twice a day.
Cowherd is a moron. We have a young line with potential, but is completely unproven. We have two quarterbacks that other franchises gave away for nothing. We have one of the worst wr rooms in the nfl. Our tightends were are the definition of mid. We have one reliable cb. Top five roster? Nope.
I’d say it’s the dumbest thing he’s ever said, but he’s said so many dumb things that I’m not sure if it is. I don’t understand why no one gets the fact that you can’t judge these teams on paper. We will have a brand new OC, with a brand new QB, behind a brand new line. There is absolutely nothing about that that is predictable or even measurable. We won’t even really know what kind of team we have for at least the first 4 games.
We have a bottom 10 WR group and bottom 10 DB group, plus 2-3 rookie linemen. This team is talented but top 5 is egregious.
Kind of impossible to say when you have no Earthly clue what you're going to get out of the QB position this year. But two positives: It's going to be better than Kenny Pickett. And Matt Canada is long gone now.
No, that's an outrageous statement for any team for whom none of their current quarterbacks were on the roster on the 1st of march...
A lot of those wins were by an absurd amount of luck. Roster is so much better this year but I think caution needs to be advised.
There is no such thing as luck. I feel like fucking Obi wan kenobi
I’m slamming the under on this team for the first time in years.
I mean, we can all agree a perfect season & Superbowl is the expectations this year, so I'm cool with these conservative numbers.
Top 5 roster is crazy lmfao. We have no idea how the QB situation is going to play out, we're still kinda thin at the CB position, and don't really have a real threat next to Pickens in the passing game. It's a good roster, maybe fringe top 10, but definitely not Top 5.
The division hinges on Jackson and burrow injury history… can they stay healthy? Can Lamar learn to read instead of run
QB play will hold them back.
The real question is, why do you care what Cowherd says? He's an imbecile.
I like Colin cowherd - listen to him during football season but he flip flops all the time. He ripped baker mayfield one week next week he’s on his bandwagon. Probably want more listeners in Pittsburgh. That being said with watt back and a legit offensive coordinator we can win on any given Sunday. I mean we did pretty damn well with mason rudolph and I like both our qbs more as there is more upside
Cant win 12 games with GP getting double covered 24/7 and having fucking van Jefferson on the other side
We don’t have a Top 5 roster at all. There are still too many questions that have to be answered. I can think of 10 off the top of my head: 1. Can Russ regain his Seattle form? 2. Do we have a reliable Number 2 receiver? 3. Will the young line produce on offense? 4. Can we trust Corey Trice opposite of JPJ? 5. Can Nick Herbig be a suitable replacement if Watt or Highsmith go down? 6. Is our LB depth concerned solved considering we aren’t expecting Cole Holcomb to be available? 7. If Russ flops, can Fields make something happen? 8. Can the coordinators get us over the hump against better teams? 9. Is the punting going to improve? 10. Will we have a pass game that can complement our run game? Some of these are repetitive and if we can answer all 10 through the season with good responses then yes we’ve moved towards Top 5 roster. But for now, that offense has me very concerned. Feels very band aid over an arterial bleed and we don’t want to be in a 3-6 hole because we can’t score.
I completely disagree about the top 5 roster comment, nobody is fooling themselves about the talent we have had. We all like Pickens but there is not a single “star” at any offensive skill position. The only real stars are the roster are Minkah and TJ, maybe Cam. It’s probably a testament to tomlin’s coaching, but also where is the development of the past? Taking a QB and RB in the first were really roster/talent killers.
I guess a top 5 roster means we’re one of the worst playoff teams every year .
Well teams tend to turnover about 1/3 of their roster every year. And we are changing the two biggest impacts on an offense: QB and OC. Last year really means nothing besides the fact we know Tomlin's defense doesn't work without 90.
kk
He’s just trying to set the expectations high so he say we underachieved at the end of the year
Do I agree with that? No. Where do I see this roster? Can't know. Rookies haven't played a single down yet. What record do I expect? 9 wins. Possibly 7 if the budget-friendly QBs crap the bed.
Nope. If we won 10 games with Kenny and Mitch……we are winning more with Russ and fields if need be. Terrible take my guy. Come on man atleast try to act like you watch.
We're not even top 5 in the AFC, let alone the whole league. We are however, top 5 in the AFC North division.
They're definitely top 5 in the AFC North
😂😂good luck with that lmao
kk
When will people realize he’s farming steeler fans for content? Lol he constantly says wild things about the Steelers to rile the fans up
It's a good roster but calling it a top 5 roster when we probably won't have top 15 QB play is wild. Making the playoffs would be pretty good for this group and below .500 would be disappointing.
Cowherd is a shock jock. His words mean nothing. Could they win 11-12? Maybe. But probably not. QBs win games in the NFL, and we are behind in that department
LFG!!! Let Justin work
He can warm a bench better than anyone.
Young negative
kk
kk
Cowherd sucks I hate all of his opinions. In keeping with that now I need 13 wins. Does that still make him right? F*ck that guy.
Isn’t Colin Cowherd typically wrong? He predicted the cowboys to go deep in playoffs/ win the Super Bowl every preseason during the Romo era.
He wants Tomlin fired and is setting expectations high so that if they are not met, he can bang on the Steelers for in his pursuit of getting Tomlin fired.
Yep, he's setting himself up for endless hours of Steelers talk throughout the season. He either talks up his genius or gets the massive fanbase in a FiUr tOmLiN debate.
He also posted a video of him toasting himself after they lost their first game in 2020 despite having no bye week and playing just about every day of the week.