The Pittsburgh Steelers found themselves in the AFC Championship game in February, and they’re looking to make it further in 2017.
The Pittsburgh Steelers are coming off of a year where they turned a good regular season into a solid run in the postseason. Now they’ll have a ton of pressure on them to do the same, and more, this year.
Last year, the AFC North was a dumpster fire, with the Steelers being the team that actually survived it in the long run. The Baltimore Ravens had themselves a mediocre season ending in an 8-8 record, the Cincinnati Bengals couldn’t get anything going, and the Cleveland Browns continued to be the Browns. In the end, the Steelers won the division with an 10-6 record.
The team survived a Le’Veon Bell suspension to start the season and a midseason injury to Ben Roethlisberger to win the division crown. It even lucked out with a season-ending injury to Oakland Raiders quarterback Derek Carr to make a run in the postseason when no one truly expected them to.
Although they fell apart in the AFC Championship Game against the New England Patriots, the Steelers proved they remain a threat in the conference. They seem to be this close to a Super Bowl appearance if they can find a way to beat Bill Belichick, Tom Brady and the endless roster of talent they often struggle against.
This year, there are a ton of questions heading into the regular season, mainly surrounding Roethlisberger and Bell. The team has seemingly always had the “Is Roethlisberger retiring?” conversation when the offseason rolls around, and they have at least one more year with Big Ben under center in Pittsburgh to try and make a run.
Meanwhile, we don’t know how long the team will have Bell in their backfield, as his holdout this offseason has been a huge talking point for everyone in and out of the organization. The Steelers don’t have much to work with in their rushing game anytime Bell leaves the lineup, whether it’s due to a holdout, suspension or injury, and they proved how important he is when he went down against the Patriots in the AFC title game.
Switching over to the defensive end of the ball, the Steelers have a ton of youth to deal with (or utilize, depending on what your thoughts are) going into the season, with most of their starters in their 20s heading into the year. T.J. Watt will be a fun name to watch throughout the season, especially with James Harrison still there to mentor him, and it’ll be interesting to see how the team fares on defense against some talented AFC offenses.
The team has a couple of tough games to look forward to throughout the year, with the matchup against the Patriots at home on Dec. 17 surely circled on their calendars as a barometer. They’ll battle a tough NFC North throughout the year, and will have to make sure they take home a majority of their pivotal divisional games with the Ravens and Bengals.
Distractions have often cost the Steelers some momentum throughout the years, whether it’s Bell’s missed time or a situation like Antonio Brown’s Facebook Live mishap from last January. The Bell holdout from the offseason may provide a similar issue through the beginning of this season, and the team will have to figure out how to avoid those distractions going forward if they want to do any damage this year.
Not much has changed in the AFC North going into this season, and the Steelers have the potential to pull off another division title if things go as expected.
If the Steelers can’t get it done this season with their current roster, it may be their last chance to do so with the core they’ve been accustomed to throughout the years. If retirement for Roethlisberger after this season is still an option, which it could be given his injury history, the Steelers need to make the most of the year while they can before they eventually have to regroup.
They may need a few years to rebuild at quarterback after this season is said and done, but what better way to send Big Ben off than by giving him the Peyton Manning treatment and winning a Super Bowl?
X-Factor
Bell’s contract situation was a dominant topic throughout the offseason, and his holdout has been a big issue for the Steelers to deal with, so it shouldn’t surprise anyone that he’d be a big X-factor for the team this season.
The Steelers running back will not have had the same amount of time as his teammates to get accustomed to things before the regular season gets going, and the team’s rushing game solely depends on whether or not he can get back into the swing of things quickly. He’s been through suspensions before and came back strong, but a holdout is a different situation.
Bell will have to be a big piece of the Steelers’ offense upon his inevitable return, and he could really make or break things for the team, whether he succeeds immediately as he needs to or falls apart in his return due to his time away from the team. His holdout is a big discussion point, his return will be widely anticipated and he’ll need to live up to the hype immediately.
Best case
The Steelers have a ton of talent to work with, and they proved last year that they can hang with the best of them on their run to an appearance in the AFC Championship. They haven’t lost any of their big names, mainly Roethlisberger and Brown, and we will see what happens with Bell’s situation as the season progresses.
For a best case scenario, the Steelers get all of their players on the same page as fast as possible, and they’re able to repeat their performance from last season. The AFC is wide-open, aside from the Patriots likely returning to the top of the throne with their current roster, and the Steelers just have to keep up with last year to make it right back to that conference title game.
The Steelers have a relatively easy schedule, and they can easily improve on last year’s 11-5 record this season. They could potentially even go 13-3 on their way back to the conference championship, likely having tough battles on the road against the Kansas City Chiefs and home games against the Patriots and the Green Bay Packers.
Worst case
The Steelers could run into some trouble with the Bell contract situation this season, and an absolute worst case scenario sees their backfield struggle in his absence. Roethlisberger’s injury troubles have been a concern over the years as well, and their offense is a time bomb waiting to go off.
Although the AFC North is relatively weak this year, much like last season, the Ravens are a team that could threaten at any moment. Despite their 8-8 mark year last year, they could provide the Steelers some trouble, and the Bengals have the ability to steal a home game against the Steelers, as well.
That same potential for the Steelers 13-3 run could quickly turn into a 10-6 or even 9-7 year, even while staying healthy, and injuries could quickly derail the season if they pop up like they have in the past. Like I said, the division is anyone’s ballgame, and the Steelers could find themselves on the outside looking in by the season’s end.
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Final word
The Steelers are one of the more talented teams in their conference, and they’ve proven over the last few years that they aren’t going anywhere unless Big Ben finally retires or one of their stars jumps ship elsewhere in free agency.
With all of the talent he has to work with, Roethlisberger should be in for a solid year statistically, and the team should be able to replicate what they did last year in a lackluster AFC North.
The Steelers don’t have a ton to worry about when it comes to the 2017 season, and fans should be excited for what’s going to come over the next four months.