Just one? I’m sure some of you are asking after reading that headline. Pittsburgh’s been on one heck of a see-saw throughout the last several years. The offense works? Congrats, the defense is bad. The defense is suffocating? The offense can’t put points on the board. It’s hard to be great at everything but Pittsburgh’s been on the extremes too often over nearly the last decade of Mike Tomlin’s tenure. The franchise is still on that ride this season.
Adding Aaron Rodgers was supposed to solve that. He’s revived the offense to its greatest heights since the Killer B’s era. Yet the defense hasn’t held up its end of the bargain.
Below is a yearly chart of the offensive and defensive scoring rankings where that see-saw can truly be felt. Unable to get the offense and defense to be above-average in the same year.
Year Offensive Rank Defensive Rank
2025 11th 19th
2024 16th 8th
2023 28th 6th
2022 26th 10th
2021 21st 20th
2020 12th 3rd
2019 27th 5th
2018 6th 16th
2017 8th 7th
Pittsburgh came close in 2024, the offense finishing squarely average instead of above. In 2022-23, the defense was great while the offense was a conservative anchor weighing down the team. In 2021, both units were above-average. In 2020, the offense and defense checked both boxes while 2019 was marred by Ben Roethlisberger’s injury. The 2018 season was similar to 2024, the defense ranking dead-average, while 2017 was the last truly successful year through this lens.
It’s not easy to make both units strong. But that’s what the Steelers are set out to do if they want to be the playoff contenders they espouse to be. For a veteran team making annual pushes to win now, the bar is raised. This isn’t a teardown rebuild.
Over that same span in the AFC North, the Ravens finished above-average in these categories in 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2023 and 2024. And of the last three AFC Championship games, five of those six finalists were above-average in both categories. Only the 2023 Kansas City Chiefs with the 16th ranked defense served as an exception.
Point being, the Steelers just can’t get both areas “right.” If the offense surges, the defense struggles. And vice versa. Pittsburgh’s always coming up short in one area or another. And that is frustrating, especially in the final years of Ben Roethlisberger’s career and the potentially one year the Steelers will benefit from Aaron Rodgers.
There’s still plenty of time left in 2025 for these numbers to change. I have more confidence in Pittsburgh’s defense than many coming off the Cincinnati loss, though the group has plenty of work to do and the “historic” breadcrumbs Tomlin led before the year began.
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