Is Elite Enough For the Steelers’ Defense?
Credit: Joseph Maiorana-USA TODAY Sports
Defense Wins Championships, so they say, so it’s great news that the Pittsburgh Steelers’ defense is still regarded as one of the NFL’s very best. On Thursday, The Ringer ranked the league’s defensive units, and the Steelers are at No. 6, among the elite. No real surprise there. T.J. Watt is a threat to win Defensive Player of the Year in any given season, Miles Killebrew made the All-Pro team, and Minkah Fitzpatrick and new arrival Patrick Queen were Pro Bowlers. And that’s just their resume for the 2023 season.
So great, an elite defense that added a key piece in Queen in the offseason with Mike Tomlin still at the helm. 10/10, no worries, no notes. Just gonna scroll up on that list, and… oh, no… Number 2 on the list are the Cleveland Browns, and the Baltimore Ravens sit third. Both teams sat atop the Steelers in the standings last year, thanks to their elite defenses.
This might leave Pittsburgh fans tempted to adopt an unfamiliar position: Wishing the Steelers were in another division. Look, the city is just barely North of Indianapolis. Less than a degree of latitude! Can’t we fudge the numbers and let Pittsburgh be the big, bad defense of the AFC South? Or, hey, just swap with anyone in the NFC North.
Admittedly, that kind of loser mentality isn’t the Steelers Way, but, man, anywhere else in the NFL, and the Steelers are the dominant defensive presence in the division. What happens if Queen can’t elevate this stellar (but aging) group above Cleveland and Baltimore? Are they at risk of falling short, even with an elite defense?
It’s easy to dismiss those concerns, given Pittsburgh got into the postseason last year with some of the worst quarterbacking in the NFL. But the Steelers were dealing with thin margins. 10-win seasons just aren’t what they used to be, after all. They got into the last Wild Card spot, finishing one game ahead of the Cincinnati Bengals, Jacksonville Jaguars, and Indianapolis Colts.
We know the Steelers are going to have a harder schedule than the rest of the teams because of their division. Still, it bears breaking down how much their schedule takes away the advantage that should come with an elite defense. Games against the Ravens are always a slugfest, and they alternate fielding their defense and the reigning MVP. Cleveland has a shakier offense, but watching Pittsburgh’s offensive line this preseason, do you feel better about the Steelers’ offense?
And while the big baddies in the AFC North get to dunk on Cincinnati’s 21st-ranked defense, again, they only finished one game behind Pittsburgh last year. They’re getting Joe Burr0w back, and while we’ve rarely had to worry about him staying on the field, what happens if he decides this is the year he won’t be made of glass?
The good news is that the AFC North head-to-heads are where Pittsburgh made their bones last year. They went 5-1 facing a divisional schedule that would make most teams soil themselves in fear. But you can easily flip that positive on itself: They went 5-6 against the rest of the league. If that happens again, can they afford to roll through their division again?
Tomlin and the Steelers know this is a problem. They wouldn’t have invested their efforts into acquiring Russell Wilson and Justin Fields, or spending two top picks on the offensive line, or flirting with a Brandon Aiyuk trade if they thought the status quo was enough. They recognized a need to get better, it’s just a matter of if they can pull the pieces together in time to make a charge up the standings.
Because if you want to ask if it’s enough to have an elite defense… it’s not. Not for Pittsburgh, and not for what the unique position a loaded AFC North puts them in. They barely got by last season, and their division is arguably better than last season. It’s also not going to be enough in a loaded AFC playoff field, not with Patrick Mahomes, Josh Allen, the Miami Dolphins’ quick-strike offense, and a similarly dominant defense in the Houston Texans running amok. Steelers fans know deep down how hollow Defense Wins Championships is. We know who was quarterbacking those ring-grabbing teams.
That elite defense gives Pittsburgh some margin for error, a bit of wiggle room they otherwise wouldn’t have. But banking on that is only going to get the team so far, and it’s a big reason why panic is setting in after two rough outings for the offense in the preseason. What worked last year might not work again, and the Steelers know the other side of the ball is going to have to complement, not be carried by, their top-tier ‘D.’
Up Next