Category: 2024 Steelers season

Steelers special team ace nominated for Art Rooney Sportsmanship Award

The Steelers have nominated Miles Killebrew for the 11th annual Art Rooney Sportsmanship Award, honoring his integrity and dedication.

The NFL announced Monday morning that all 32 teams have nominated one player for the 11th annual Art Rooney Sportsmanship Award. Recipients of this prestigious honor must demonstrate exceptional sportsmanship both on and off the field. For their nomination, the Pittsburgh Steelers have selected special teams captain Miles Killebrew.

Previous winners of the award, which highlights outstanding sportsmanship, include legends such as LB Bobby Wagner, DT Calais Campbell, RB Adrian Peterson, QB Drew Brees, and WR Larry Fitzgerald, to name just a few.

For Killebrew, winning an award associated with these all-time great leaders of sportsmanship in the NFL would undoubtedly be a significant honor. His unwavering dedication to the game he loves may very well bring him one step closer to making this goal a reality.

Killebrew’s consistent display of integrity, respect, resilience, and dedication to the Pittsburgh Steelers exemplify the outstanding qualities of an Art Rooney Sportsmanship Award winner.

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Steelers have toughest remaining Week 10-18 schedule, per PFF

According to Pro Football Focus, the Pittsburgh Steelers have the toughest remaining schedule in the NFL from Weeks 10 to 18.

After acquiring WR Mike Williams from the New York Jets and OLB Preston Smith from the Green Bay Packers at the trade deadline, the Pittsburgh Steelers quickly shift their focus back onto their postseason aspirations.  Pittsburgh needed all the help it could get, however, as the team heads into what is shaping up to be an extremely difficult second half of the 2024 season.

Most Pittsburgh fans would shudder at the idea of hearing that their team would need to go head-to-head with what seems like five playoff contenders in nine weeks, and it appears the infamous and always polarizing Pro Football Focus would agree with them.

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PFF is correct in their assessment, as with nine tough matchups remaining, the Steelers will face the 7-2 Washington Commanders, the 6-3 Baltimore Ravens twice, the 4-5 Cincinnati Bengals twice, the 2-7 Cleveland Browns twice, the 6-2 Philadelphia Eagles, and the undefeated 8-0 Kansas City Chiefs.

Can the newly upgraded Pittsburgh Steelers succeed in taking on this seemingly impossible second half gauntlet, or will the team come crashing back down to reality after an impressive first half start to the 2024 season?

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NFL Network sets modest win projections for Steelers

The Steelers should once again hover around a .500 record.

If you think you have a good grasp on how good or bad the Pittsburgh Steelers will be this season, you are probably kidding yourself. Every year the Steelers head into the season with more questions than answers about the players and staff only to find their way above .500 and more often than not sneak into the playoffs.

However, you can take comfort in knowing the Steelers are going just barely to get past .500 and if they do make the playoffs, they are longshot to get a win.

Cynthia Frelund of the NFL Network took on the massive project of running countless simulations of the full NFL regular season to put together her projections for all 32 teams.

Here is what Frelund had to say about the Steelers as she projected 8.6 wins.

In the NFL’s most stacked division, questions about the Steelers’ offensive line get magnified in the win projection. However, the offense gained +216 rushing yards over expected on designed runs in 2023 (sixth-most in the league, per NGS). The arrival of new offensive coordinator in Arthur Smith, who has shown creative and effective run strategies, could help mitigate some of the O-line concerns. 

Frelund has the Steelers win ceiling at 10.4 and the floor at 5.9. Both are very fair estimates. The Steelers have one of the toughest schedules in the league and it is back loaded. Pittsburgh often gets off to a slow start and if this happens the team might not be able to make up that ground late in the season.

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The Steelers quarterback battle is over like it never happened

There never really was a quarterback battle and Satruday’s game proved it.

If you were holding onto even a shred of hope that there was a quarterback battle with the Pittsburgh Steelers, it only took about five minutes of this week’s preseason game against the Detroit Lions to crush those hopes and dreams.

Starting quarterback Russell Wilson played only one series against the Lions, leading the team to a touchdown before exiting in favor of Justin Fields.

If there was any sort of quarterback position battle going on, Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin would have wanted a longer look at Wilson to compare him to fields. But pulling him so soon just cements the fact that Wilson has been the starter since the day he signed and nothing he or Fields has done since has changed a thing.

This has to be a tough pill for Fields to swallow. He’s made it clear since the Steelers traded for him that he was coming in to compete for the starting job. Was he sold a bill of goods by Tomlin? Will the team have some sort of role for him on offense and does Fields even want that?

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Steelers OT Troy Fautanu making ‘slow progression’ with knee injury

Troy Fautanu was supposed to be the team’s starting right tackle this season but has remained sidelined with a knee injury.

The Pittsburgh Steelers had a plan. Draft offensive tackle Troy Fautanu out of Washington, let him work his way into the starting lineup and then prosper. Those plans were derailed almost immediately when Fautanu suffered a knee injury in the team’s first preseason game against the Houston Texans.

Now the Steelers are headed into their third and final preseason game and Fautanu is still on the mend. There’s been no timetable set by head coach Mike Tomlin for Fautaunu’s return and according to the talented rookie, it is a slow progression.

Fautaunu spoke to the media and while he remained optimistic there was clearly frustration that he is not able to contribute.

Fautanu’s absence means the Steelers’ starting offensive tackles remain Dan Moore Jr. on the left and Broderick Jones on the right. It isn’t clear how the Steelers will handle Fautanu’s injury at the start of the season but he could find himself on IR to start the year.

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Steelers QB says team is playing its starters vs Lions

The Steelers starters still need plenty of reps this week.

The first two preseason games for the Pittsburgh Steelers have been a comedy of errors for the offense. Despite all the moves the Steelers made this offseason to improve the offense, this group looks far worse than last season’s unit.

This includes the starting quarterback spot where Russell Wilson and Justin Fields continue to battle it out for the job with neither player really stepping up. Wilson addressed the media on Wednesday and gave the impression that even though this is the last preseason game, he expects the starters to play against Detroit.

Fields started in the Week One preseason game against the Houston Texans and Wilson started last week against the Buffalo Bills.

A lot of times, Week Three of the preseason is an opportunity for teams to rest starters and get a better look at backups ahead of roster cuts. Pittsburgh doesn’t have that luxury with so many problems on offense and so many starting spots still up for grabs.

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3 AFC North teams make ESPN’s declining list

Three teams from the AFC North made the playoffs in 2023.

ESPN writer Bill Barnwell put together his list of the NFL teams he thinks are most likely to be on the decline this season over last. On Barnwell’s list, he actually lists three of the four teams in the AFC North, which we found somewhat surprising.

Along with the Pittsburgh Steelers, he also has the Baltimore Ravens and Cleveland Browns on the list. Every team in the AFC North went over .500 in 2023 and all three of these teams made the playoffs last season with the Cincinnati Bengals being the only one who missed the cut.

Here’s what ESPN had to say about the Steelers taking a step back from their 10-7 record in 2023.

The résumé is the résumé. Leave the Mike Tomlin aura out of the picture and there’s no more obvious pick for a team whose record doesn’t hold up under any sort of scrutiny. The Steelers will find it extremely difficult to win 10 games again if they play the way they did in 2023. There’s just no track record for a team being able to do this year after year without eventually either improving their underlying performance dramatically or having their record fall back to Earth.

There’s no denying the Steelers are an anomaly. And as much as we all want to assume head coach Mike Tomlin will somehow work his magic and limp to a winning record, this schedule says otherwise.

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ESPN has no confidence in Steelers in playoff rankings

ESPN gives no credit to the improvements the Steelers made this offseason.

ESPN’s Bill Barnwell went through each of the 14 NFL playoff teams and ranked this for the upcoming season. The Steelers Steelers snuck into the playoffs last season with a 10-7 record. This was despite finishing third in the conference.

This offseason Pittsburgh has gone to great lengths to improve the offensive side of the football with a completely new quarterback room led by Russell Wilson and two new offensive linemen.

Barnwell clearly doesn’t care about any of that. He ranked the Steelers as the worst of the 14 playoff teams from last season. Here’s what he had to say about it.

I know, I know. Don’t make the same mistake twice. Or three times. Or however many times the numbers say to count out the Steelers. Tomlin has managed to coax at least eight wins out of his team in every single season he has coached the franchise, a streak that has survived dismal quarterback play, injuries and woefully inept offensive playcallers. You know I’m about to get to the numbers, but the numbers shouldn’t apply to Pittsburgh.

Ranked ahead of the Steelers are all three other teams in the AFC North.

USA TODAY plays it safe with Steelers season prediction

USA TODAY has the Steelers finishing last in the AFC North.

USA TODAY released their predictions for the upcoming NFL season on Monday. For the Pittsburgh Steelers, USA TODAY played it safe with the Pittsburgh Steelers and gave them a 9-8 record for the upcoming season.

Winning nine games would ensure that head coach Mike Tomlin keeps his streak of non-losing seasons alive. If the Steelers win nine games in 2024, it would mark 18 in a row for Tomlin. Every season he’s been the head coach.

The bad news is USA TODAY has the Steelers finishing dead last in the AFC North with that same record. The Steelers have never finished last in the AFC North.

The last time the Steelers finished last in any division was all the way back in 1988 when Pittsburgh went 5-11 and finished fourth in the AFC Central.

In these predictions, the Cincinnati Bengals finish first at 11-6 followed by the Cleveland Browns at 10-7 and the Baltimore Ravens at 10-7. The AFC North will be highly contested and these predictions bear that out.

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FanDuel calls Steelers surprise contender in 2024

The Steelers need to get off to a fast start to contend this year.

After finishing 10-7 last season, the Pittsburgh Steelers somehow sneaked into the playoffs. This was despite some pretty awful quarterback play and an inconsistent defense.

This offseason, Pittsburgh completely turned over their quarterback depth chart and added two new starters on the offensive line. The front offense also added a couple of playmakers on defense.

So it’s not a surprise that at least some in the NFL community think the additions the Steelers made this offseason are enough to elevate them into contenders. FanDuel posted the tweet below calling the Steelers a surprise contender:

The Steelers are in a tough spot on two fronts this season. First, they play in the toughest division in football with all four teams playoff contenders.

Second, their schedule, which is backloaded with division games, is the toughest in the NFL. Once the bye week hits, everything ramps up for the Steelers. If this team isn’t sitting pretty at the bye, they will have no chance to contend.

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