It’s been a while since the Pittsburgh Steelers last won the AFC North. The Baltimore Ravens have now done it two years in a row, and the Cincinnati Bengals won it the two years before that. However, a pair of ESPN analysts, Mina Kimes and Bill Barnwell, think the Steelers could return to those winning ways this year.
On the Mina Kimes Show featuring Lenny on Tuesday, the two picked surprise winners for each NFL division. Kimes decided to roll with the Steelers for the AFC North.
“My AFC North, it’s gonna be surprising,” Kimes said. “I want to make a case for the Pittsburgh Steelers here. It starts with the very obvious case, right, which is they’ve been on the verge of winning the division, or knocking on the door, and they made it to the playoffs with very bad quarterback play. I don’t think Aaron Rodgers is gonna be a massive upgrade… But he just has to be competent for this team to be in the mix.”
Competent quarterback play is exactly what the Steelers hope to get out of Aaron Rodgers this year. Russell Wilson had a nice start to his Steelers’ tenure, but things quickly fell off a cliff as they lost their last four regular-season games. Despite that, they still had a chance to win the division going into the season’s final week. The Steelers aren’t getting the best odds this year either, with their projected win total being just 8.5.
However, they were in the mix last season, even with that collapse. Aaron Rodgers should be an improvement, as Kimes suggests. Defensively, Pittsburgh has no real holes. Thus, they should be expected to contend in the AFC North, and possibly even win it.
Barnwell agrees. He thinks some of those pieces on defense will play a significant role.
“I have been wrong about the Pittsburgh Steelers pretty much every single season,” Barnwell said. “I’m willing to go on this bandwagon with you if I have to… I think they have, with Keeanu Benton, with Joey Porter, like they have a young, legitimate core around some of the names we know. Around Cam Heyward, with T.J. Watt, who was still really good.”
Pittsburgh’s in an interesting place as a franchise, and its defense reflects it. They’re trying to win now, with older pieces including Cam Heyward, T.J. Watt, Jalen Ramsey, Darius Slay and Patrick Queen. Yet, they’ve done a nice job supplementing that with youth across the defense. On the line, there’s Derrick Harmon, Jack Sawyer and Yahya Black. At linebacker, Payton Wilson takes over a starting role. In the secondary, Joey Porter Jr. figures to be the team’s CB1 after Ramsey and Slay.
That blend of youth gives the Steelers a chance to remain competitive even as some of their players age out. However, they’ve also got enough talent to potentially make a run this year for the AFC North’s crown. That’s something Kimes and Barnwell think is possible.
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