are we on the upswing

I have those glasses.

 

Maybe this will help your vision.

 

And you look good in them

 

This talk of Bengals and Ravens declining and Steelers with an old QB makes the AFCN open for them Brownies.

As another poster said who would have predicted Pats/Hawks SB. There is no way to know what will happen this season and injuries always (sadly) come into play.

 

Rock fights? Is that like throwing clowns at each other?

 

Those are the not allowed to use glasses. Especially after filling them with the stuff from the decanter.

 

I'm willing to give McCarthy some mulligans to right the ship. If that means starting inexperienced QBs and losing season... so be it. Rodgers is not the most durable QB in the NFL anymore. Hope he holds up.

 

LOL. I am pretty sure all teams are on the upswing in Mid June. Everyone putting on their Rose-Colored and talking about the great draft they just had, and how all the 2nd year players are going to take giant leaps forward this year.

McCarthy could be the wild card this season. I like the fact that everyone is talking about how much McCarthy is changing everything, and not trying to keep the Tomlin systems in place.

 

That is not what I saw last year. Something tells me Rodgers has a Brady like program to keep his body going this long.

Give Rodgers some credit: Guy missed 1 game last year with a wrist injury, that I thought would have put him out multiple weeks.

 

I think we are. Definitely on the upswing for this year given this recent offseason and the fact Rodgers will be in place as the QB1.

But for 2027 and beyond, the key is going to be whether they can find the QB1. So that looms large for them, and they may need a new DC though I am hopeful he's ready to do the job.

 

Here are the things that have to break against strong trends for the Steelers to be on any upward trajectory:

• a 42 year old QB has to return to the MVP form last seen 5 years ago. This has not happened often in the history of the NFL.
• Two new starting OTs have to turn in All-Pro caliber seasons. This has happened but happens extremely rarely in the history of the NFL.
• Jalen Ramsey has to reverse the age related decline he has been in for multiple seasons. He needs to have the second stage of his career that Charles Woodson had. Unfortunately, Woodson was playing better prior to his resurgence than Ramsey has been. This still might be the most likely element on this list.
• Patrick Graham has to helm a top 5 or top 10 defense. Something he has never done in 7 previous years as an NFL DC. That is a big trend reversal.
• Patrick Queen has to be a lynchpin contributor in the middle of the defense on all downs and in all situations. It has yet to happen in his entire NFL career. Maybe this is the year?
• The entire skill position side of the offense has to reverse their recent disappearing acts. The Steelers need every single offensive skill position player to reverse their career arcs at the same time in the same season. Some of these players have had troubling trend lines before donning Steelers gear, so let's not just pretend this was coaching alone.

That is a ton of precedent to buck. Personally, I do not believe in expecting exceptional 1 of 1 outcomes. The 2026 Steelers season hinges on a number of unique outcomes. Hit one or two? Maybe. Several? Not a chance.

 

If we had our young franchise Qb id say we were on the upswing,

but not with a 43 year old former great where were trying to get a few more last miles out of him

 

Why you gotta piss in the cornbread?? Debbie downer. LoL

 

that QB is in a familiar offense. plus

both tackles ended the season as starters so they are not new just swapped sides. hopefully a plus.

jalen ramsey will be in a better coaching situation with a better supporting cast. plus

graham i agree with but i think he has better players than he had where he was.

queen? who knows. agree must play better but also the players around him and not ask or expect too much of him.

skill positions have not had a disappearing act. warren played well. dowdell played well. metcalf won't have near the doubles he had last year. metcalf had 80 receptions hardly disappearing. friermuth and washington should be out of that stale situation they were in. biggest plus may be the coaching they will receive. better depth as well.

all plusses. defensive additions and depth should also be better. i like the additions they have made to staff and player wise. i do believe they are going in the right direction. i don't think it's complete yet but arrows up. our division rivals are peaked i believe. they have concerns as well. i do think we hang quite well with them right now.

 

That list was a bucket of ice water for sure.

I can't disagree with any of it. Rooney never wants to use the world 'rebuild' but we are essentially doing that with Rodgers as a placeholder. Getting the roster revamped with younger players while hunting for the next franchise QB.

 

I just don't believe in prolonged use of "hope-ium". It rots your brain.

Long term repeatable trends are always the best predictors of anything.

Those looking for a 2026 Steelers "contender" a

In your opinion those are pluses. They may very well turn out to be plusses in reality by the end of the 2026 season.

But we are talking in this thread on what a foundation for expectations can be built on - or at least that was my interpretation of your opening question. And I posted a list of things that all have to go completely opposite of recent trends and break from NFL wide patterns over time.

There is far too much already posted on Rodgers. So look at PF. Is PF on track to have a late(r) career break out like Zach Ertz and start making season awards lists or is he more like a Tyler Eiffert...a guy who just never broke out and didn't live up to his draft promise. Maybe he splits the difference and is Todd Heap? Again....while I am rooting for PF to finally "break out" there is a TON of NFL history to indicate that it just isn't ever going to happen. We can debate the reasons....but the probabilities are not on his side.

Also....how can Ramsey be in a better coaching situation, while retaining questions about the DC's ability? That is a significant amount of cognitive dissonance to hold inside your noggin' at one time.

Want to see something frightening? Look at Austin's defensive rankings in his coaching stops prior to Pittsburgh. Now think of how you would rate Austin as a coach. Do the same exercise for Graham. Austin's rankings were noticeably better in his stop's prior to Pittsburgh than Graham's. And this is a pretty nice roster: https://www.pro-football-reference.com/teams/det/2015.htm but not a loaded one that carry's team regardless of scheme. So...if you think Austin was part of the problem --- how is a coach with a worse NFL track record part of the solution?

I am not going to belabor the point any more than I have already. But a dispassionate look at the previous precedents and long term trends....is very unkind to the 2026 Steelers.

 

It's not about Rodgers it's about building the team up for the future, they might get their franchise QB next year in the draft. I consider being on the upswing with them signing a bunch of those guys from the 2023 draft class, and the OL continuing to gel and then start re-signing some of them next offseason.

 

Losing seasons won't be tolerated fire Big Mike.

 

Maybe Burrow should try and stay healthy for a whole season before talking about how good the Bengals could be.

 

I love cornbread.

Pissing on cornbread makes me sad...

 

Y’all don’t know what you’re missing.

piss soaked cornbread is AMAZING.

 

well Qb is the most important position on the team but if you want to look at the rest of the team theyre not really set for the future yet either. We have unproven potential at both tackle positions, our two main guys up front on the defense; Cam and TJ are on the downside of their careers and aside from JP jr and Deshon Elliot, our DB’s are not yet established, (Ramsey will be 32 and is not really a CB anymore) then there are the receivers were we mostly have unproven guys except for FAs DK and MP jr.

maybe alot of these guys can establish themselves by the end of the year. Then we hopefully find our franchise Qb, maybe in a year or two we are really on the upswing

 

i think austin and butler before him had little to do with coordinating the defense. another guy had his mits all over it. graham has never had the highest paid defense in the league to work with.

now as far as PF and washington, i believe they are in a much better situation with this offensive minded coach and additions at WR to help them be much more involved in the middle of the field than with the prior staff running the show. even down the road with whomever is the young QB, as i'm sure you know the TE position is a young QB's best friend. much like heath was with ben even. ben wasn't quite the same after heath miller left. that was his security blanket so to speak.

i guess my thoughts on the upswing side have a lot to do with what kahn and weidl have done so far and the thought that mccarthy and those two will have a profound change over MT and colbert or even kahn at the end of the colbert reign. the rest of the league has had far more success as of late with baltimore and cinci. as have we and i think the trend is changing our way. not complete but by death from a thousand cuts type scenario. little bits at a time. remember they have on tape our trend of 19 years to figure out what might be coming this year.

this staff has done things together prior but they have also been seasoned in the NFL separately and are now back together with new knowledge. if they put it together with what kahn and weidl have set up for them, i do believe the trend is on the upswing. more to do with the complete package than individual trends of the staff and players.

 

If not for QB injuries in the AFCN last season the Steelers don't sneak into the playoffs without a wide right FG. That is the reality of where the team is. And while everyone wants to laugh at the Browns, they have actually made a few very good moves and good drafts (imagine Schwesinger as our MLB, and Fano, Concepcion and Boston were all talked about as possible Steelers picks by this board). If they can finally get the coaching right and find their QB (two firsts next draft) they could make noise in a short amount of time. Burrow is still a top tier QB with weapons. Ravens are nearly always 50/50 games with the Steelers.

So while the Steelers may have turned the corner after Colbert's waning years they have much work to be competitive in the postseason. I like that Weidle has rightly focused on the lines because as he said recently; “We want to build through the lines,” Weidl said. “The foundation of your team, the foundation of a house with your offensive line and defensive line. We always want to be strong there.”

 

The improvement has to come from the offense for sure. Get the defense off the field. We always have such high expectations for the Steelers defense. If offense cant improve we will see more of the same. An exhausted gassed defense.