There were plenty of problems across the Pittsburgh Steelers’ roster in 2025. Yet, partially thanks to a weakened division, the Steelers still managed to win 10 games and the AFC North. With some improvements this offseason, former NFL cornerback Aqib Talib thinks they can repeat that success again in 2026. Yet, Talib doesn’t expect that to be enough for the Steelers to finish in the top half of their division.
“If they can find a nice lineup for this o-line, I think that offense will be pretty good. You bring in Patrick Graham, Bill Belichick tree for the defense, he a smart guy, he was in New England when I was there. A smart, detail-oriented coach. He’ll get more out of that defense than Teryl Austin did,” Talib said recently on The Arena. “It’s looking good for Pittsburgh. I think they win 10 games again this year, but 10 games gonna get you third place in the North. They gonna send three teams to the playoffs. So Pittsburgh, they’ll go to the playoffs. But they’ll be third in that division.”
Predictably, Talib thinks the Baltimore Ravens and Cincinnati Bengals will finish ahead of the Steelers. He thinks the Ravens could claim the division title with 12 or 13 wins, with Cincinnati falling just shy of that number.
The Steelers aren’t the only AFC North team to undergo significant changes this offseason. The Bengals went through the least of them, the only team in the division to retain its head coach. And while they lost Trey Hendrickson, who went to the Ravens, the Bengals added Dexter Lawrence on defense. If that unit can step up, it’s hard to bet against an offense featuring Joe Burrow, Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins.
However, as we’ve seen in recent years, that’s a big if. And with Jesse Minter now leading the Ravens, potentially they can get over their shortcomings under John Harbaugh. But Minter is also a first-time head coach, and there could be some rocky moments in his first year. The Ravens have had a stronghold over the Steelers in the AFC North in recent years, but their flaws and injury issues were evident in 2025. We’ll see if Minter’s first year has anything better in store.
In Cleveland, it’s a little bit more of a wild card. Many are optimistic about the Browns, thinking they could overtake the Steelers. And to their credit, the Browns seem to have done very well over the last couple of drafts. But we’ve yet to see that translate to progress on the field, and with a shaky quarterback situation it’s hard to be sure Cleveland will make that jump in 2026.
Ultimately, this division is going to be very interesting in 2025. The Bengals have had postseason runs recently, but things have been rocky the last couple of years. The other three teams are all led by new head coaches, making things much less predictable than usual. While Talib sees some success in the Steelers’ future, he thinks it will still amount to a third-place finish in the AFC North.
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