Sitting at 5-4 on the season, the Pittsburgh Steelers are on top of the AFC North standings, and currently hold the No. 4 seed in the AFC playoff picture.
On paper, that seems quite good, considering all the changes the Steelers underwent this offseason, both in terms of personnel and coaching. And yet, it actually feels more like a disappointment, considering the Steelers were 4-1 just a few short weeks ago, and have now lost three of their last four.
They are seemingly fading in the AFC, while within their own division, the Baltimore Ravens are surging. Things aren’t going well for Pittsburgh, and it has The Athletic’s Mike Jones labeling the Steelers a pretender in the conference.
“The Steelers got off to a solid start and have led the AFC North for much of the season. However, they have the look of a team that is about to run out of gas,” Jones writes of the Steelers. “…Defensively, the Steelers are far too inconsistent. The unit has turned in some dominant performances, but Pittsburgh has given up 376 yards and nearly 25 points per game.
“Emerging unscathed from a tough second-half schedule featuring games against the Cincinnati Bengals, who have already beaten them once, the Chicago Bears, Bills, Ravens (twice), Miami Dolphins, Detroit Lions and Cleveland Browns feels like mission impossible.”
The back half of the schedule is about to get very difficult, much like it did last season, which played a factor in the Steelers losing five straight games to turn what was once a promising 2024 season into a disaster.
Now, the 2025 season might be shaping up to be more of the same.
Pittsburgh raced out to a 4-1 record with a big win over the New England Patriots in Week 3 and a big win overseas against the Minnesota Vikings in Dublin.
Since then, though, outside of a dominant win over the Cleveland Browns, Pittsburgh has been so up and down. While they had a big-time win over arguably the NFL’s best team in the Indianapolis Colts, they dropped a bad game to the Cincinnati Bengals on Thursday Night Football. Then they were blown out in primetime by the Green Bay Packers and the Los Angeles Chargers.
Players inside the locker room aren’t panicking and aren’t riding the rollercoaster of emotions within the NFL season. But it’s hard to look at this team right now as a true contender in the AFC, especially as the Ravens get red hot, and the likes of the Patriots, Colts, Chargers and Denver Broncos start to pull away and separate themselves.
We’ll see if the Steelers can get back on the right path, or if they run out of gas in the second half of the season for the second straight year.
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