Steelers Kimes
Steelers Kimes
The 2026 Pittsburgh Steelers look rather deep on paper and have a chance to be a good team in the first year under new head coach Mike McCarthy, especially after GM Omar Khan and assistant GM Andy Weidl addressed a number of roster concerns this offseason.
But there is no general consensus with the Black and Gold leading up to the 2026 season. Some believe they’ll be able to get over the hump in the playoffs and compete for a Super Bowl. Others think they’ll be good enough to get into the postseason but go one-and-done again, and there’s another segment of the football landscape that believes the Steelers will be a disaster.
ESPN’s Mina Kimes falls into the middle with the Steelers.
On the latest episode of her podcast that published Thursday, Kimes believes the Steelers will be among the league’s best defensively but doesn’t feel great about their offense.
“Revisiting the Steelers defense, I should have had them in my top 10,” Kimes said. “The Joey Porter Jr. contract situations is looming over this a little bit. But they’re just really talented, and kind of surprisingly deep at a few areas.”
Kimes didn’t have the Steelers defense in her top 10 earlier in the offseason, and she didn’t have them on the fringe either. But revisiting things, she is all in on Pittsburgh’s defense, even with the concerns in the secondary regarding Joey Porter Jr.’s contract situation and the injury issues with safeties DeShon Elliott and Jaquan Brisker.
But the front seven should be dynamic once again, especially with the three-headed monster at outside linebacker featuring T.J. Watt, Alex Highsmith and Nick Herbig. Having Patrick Graham as defensive coordinator will help, too.
Where Kimes has concerns though is on offense with 42-year-old quarterback Aaron Rodgers back with McCarthy.
“I think offensively, I’m obviously not optimistic about the ceiling, but I think adding [Michael] Pittman Jr. and we’ll see what happens at wide receiver three, lifted the floor,” Kimes said. “I think this should still be a pretty good run game. I think the offensive line should be pretty good.”
The Michael Pittman Jr. addition shored up the receiver room in a big way behind DK Metcalf. Last season the Steelers counted on Adam Thielen (now retired) and Marquez Valdes-Scantling down the stretch to be the No. 2 and No. 3 behind Metcalf.
Things obviously didn’t work out there. Now though, Pittman raises the floor, as Kimes noted. It helps that the Steelers also have Roman Wilson in Year 3 poised for a big leap, while rookie Germie Bernard should be a key piece, too.
It comes down to Rodgers though, and he’ll play behind an offensive line that has had issues in training camp and the preseason, but projects to be good once it fully jells.
“I think I could see this team finishing with the 10th-best defense or 11th-best defense and like the 18th-best offense, even with the Aaron Rodgers trajectory,” Kimes added.
Having a top 10-defense and a fringe top-20 offense should lead to some success for the Steelers. That said, it would be very similar to what the Steelers have been in the past: reliant on a high-end defense but just average offensively. That’s not what the expectations were with the hiring of McCarthy.