So We Should Make the Playoffs Easily???

Good night Brice

Happy 4th

 

No one in the afc is making the playoffs "easily" except for whoever wins the afc south.

 

Always got 2 be pissing on somebody's parade.
LoL

 

Well I would say Buffalo KC Cincy are all clearly better going into the season. If Baltimore stays healthier they have a better roster. Denver with Russ should be better although you have to see how he transitions. Someone has to win the South presumably Ten or Indi. That is 6 teams I have a hard time seeing us better than so no making the playoffs will not be easy. If Tomlin pulls it off it would be impressive.

 

Nail on the head.

Every preseason people talk about easiest schedules, guaranteed play-offs etc. Every year people are proved wrong. Rinse and repeat.

I think we'll see an improvement on offense. On paper there are a lot of plusses there compared to the minuses.

 

No sh@# - an expression of shock or amazement given after some new piece of information is learned. Typically followed up by a request for additional information. Example: Caitlin Jenner used to be a man and a world class Olympic gold medalist in the decathlon. Wow no stuff, I wonder what happened.

No sh@#: a statement made typically after someone says something that is generally known to all. Most of the time uttered with a negative name describing the speaker such as Sherlock, Captain Obvious, or dumbass. Example: Tom Brady is a whiney little *****! No sh@# sherlock.

The answer to the question you posed. Harris will step up and lead by example, Friermuth will as well. I expect Mitch and Pickett to seek to step forward as leaders. There won't be a divided locker room. Because in order for that to happen one unit has to feel they are doing the Lions share of the work. Tj and Cam won't allow that. As far a the "C" this isn't hockey and while being named team captains is essentially saying this is who we will look to for leadership, no one gets a C or A on their jersey that can be taken away.

Moving on.

 

I’m not so much worried about who the captain is but rather who the QB is. Very hard for an NFL offense to be good with subpar QB play unless you have a dominating line and run game which we obviously don’t have (hopefully it’s better this year)

 

To present a counter argument, PFT rated us 22 in the NFL, so they don`t see playoffs for us. They cited Ben`s quickest release in the NFL made the O-line look not as bad as they truly were and that is saying a lot considering they were thought to be pretty horrible.

Maybe no-Ben will make us worse, no way to know. One thing for sure is we will have to change how we do offense. My guess is we will suffer greatly on offense early in the season. If we try to do more running, we know our O-line is no good at that. Seems to me the only way to surprise everyone to the upside is to do the unexpected, like discover a deep passing game.

 

That would be the wrong take on my comment.

If it is possible for a team to have the top offense and defense in a season and still not make the playoffs, then why would someone make the statement "should make the playoffs easily" because a team that barely made the playoffs the year before appears (but not verified yet) to have made improvements?

 

Actually when I said make the playoffs easily....it was a question....not a statement....I just wanted 2 see what everyone else thought about the idea, and I appreciate everyone's answers.

 

Not even close. They have 3 unproven QB's on the roster. That alone makes the playoffs a pipe dream.

 

Agreed, but with that being said.....couldn't We also say that We could get a jump on teams because they really don't know what 2 game plan against on offense???

 

Good point

How can they know what we are doing if we don’t know what we are doing

 

Over the past 11 years, the Bears made the playoffs twice.
Both times, Trubisky was the QB.
So the Steelers have a QB that started for a poor team that made the playoffs.
(In 2018, they finished ahead of the Packers, despite Rodgers starting 16 games with 25 TDs, 2 INTs.)

I wouldn't argue if someone felt it was "unlikely" or even "doubtful", but "a pipe dream" seems like an overstatement.

 

No, they won't make the playoffs easily, but we should see the QB do some QB sneaks and rollouts things Ben didn't do.

 

Excellent Movie, and book.
Movie is13th Warrior. The Book was called Eaters of the Dead.

 

To talk down our division opponents a bit:

I can see the Bengals taking a step back, they went on a magical run last year where virtually everything went their way down the stretch, including critical opponent errors and having the leagues kindest injury record. They may well have improved on paper but there is now way the above happens a second year running, and as good as they were last year they still only finished 10-7

Baltimore are my bet to win the Division but their passing offence is alarmingly short of proven options, Andrews is unlikely to repeat his historical 2021 season. If he gets injured they will really struggle imo

Browns could be a total disaster if Watson is suspended, their receiving corp is probably the weakest in the league and they may have Jacoby Brissett leading the offence. Chubb / Hunt in the backfield are great but it’s a passing league.

I think one of Cinci or Baltimore will step up and have a good year but second place and a playoff spot is a realistic goal for the steelers. The Steelers defence should hold its own this year with the additions they have made but if they are going to make a playoff run the big incremental improvement will have to be on offence. They will need:

1. One of Trubisky or Pickett to surprise everyone and play above the line
2. Solid OLine play, middle of the league type of performance is probably the best we can realistically hope for
3. Jonathan Taylor 2021 type breakout year from Najee Harris and a strong second season from Pat Freirmuth
4. Diontae to continue what he is doing and at least one of the other receivers to step up as a legit NFL weapon

All of the above happening together is highly unlikely of course, but you never know.

 

For me, I usually look at the division and ask the question 'can this team beat those teams?'
Cincinnati might be tough but one really never knows for sure.
I do think they remain tough as long as Burrows is the QB. I would say I 'expect' them to win the division. (Actual results may vary)

Then there is the schedule. This doesn't look too easy. Div foes account for 6 games, it would be nice to win 5, and then pick up 5 or 6 wins out of the 12 non-div.

And of course, 'did they get better?'
QB is a big question. They have a guy penciled to start that has been a disappointment (there may be reasons, but at face value it is what he has been)
A promising rookie that probably falls short of being at a Burrows at a rookie level...
And a QB who just hasn't been able to step it to the next level of play.

I would agree with the general assessments of the rest of the team.

I think I see a .500 team basically. (Though impossible in 17 games - lol)
I think if some of the "if's" turn into producers, I could see a jump from 8-9/9-8 to maybe ~10 wins.
10 wins should get them into the Playoffs, but probably as a road team.
It could also go south as all 3 QB's could stink up the joint.. in that case a 4-13 is not hard to imagine.

I think the first 2 preseason games should show a little of the team direction.

 

I'm not saying they can't...I'm just saying they won't do it easily.

 

Team has a ton of questions. Regardless of my criticisms of Ben, his biggest attribute remained strong, and that was his ability to put the team on his back and win games. I don't know if Mitch and Pickett has that attribute. Pickett shown that in college some, but it's a different ballgame. I think Mitch and Pickett probably gives the Steelers a better shot of being in games and even have leads going into the 4th. But finishing is a different story.

I totally expect the offense to be completely different this season; however, that doesn't automatically equate to it being successful. It could ultimately be complete horse**** and doesn't work at this level. Only time will tell. The offense will attempt to use eye candy to create mismatches.

I think the line has potential to improve a lot. Even Green should be better as he actually has a full off-season to prepare. I expect him to have a redshirt year and have a better shot at starting next year. McDaniels was spoken very highly by the Chicago media. I hope he grows into what they were projecting for him. Dan Moore should have continued growth and I actually hope they flip Chuks and Moore. I think that alone will benefit both players to be playing their more natural positions.

As for the defense. I hope we see improvement with our run defense. Alualu should help, alot. But his health will be a concern. I think Adams will only get better as he learns the system.

I think whoever the QB is will be the natural leader, plus Harris, Muth, McDaniels and DJ will develop into leaders. McDaniels was showing leadership traits in OTAs and mini camp. I suspect that he'll only continue filling that void.

I think most teams at this stage sans SB contenders and bottom feeders are a bounce here and a call there away from 7-10 or 10-7. 8-9 or 9-8 seems about right, leaning 9-8 because of Tomlin's winning record in the regular season. This may or may not be enough to get the 6th or 7th spot in the playoffs.

 

I See no playoffs. I haven't looked at at the schedule but the AFC is stacked.

AFC North - Cincy and Baltimore are the leaders here.
AFC East - Buffalo and New England
AFC South - Tenn. and Indy (I don't think either is substantially better than us but someone has to win the division)
AFC West - KC, Denver and Chargers (I think all 4 teams in this division are better than the Steelers...and I think the Raiders will be good)

Health, as always ,will have a lot to do with the outcome of the year (see Baltimore last year), but this would be my way to early playoff picture

1 seed- Buffalo (NE will be good, but the Bills have no other real competition in the division and NE is a distant second to Buffalo)
2 seed - Cincy (I go Cincy here because I think the AFC west will beat each other up. Cincy will have a better record but I think the AFC west winner will be the better team)
3 - 7 seed in no particular order - KC, New England, Denver, Baltimore, Chargers

 

how do we know our offensive line is no good at run blocking?

 

We will see about this year but I watched them last year

That’s how I know