Steelers vs Falcons: Steelers Wire staff picks

Steelers Wire staff make their picks for this week’s game.

It’s finally time to see the Pittsburgh Steelers kick off the regular season. This week the Steelers travel to Atlanta to take on the Falcons in a reunion with Steelers offensive coordinator Arthur Smith to the team he used to coach. This is one of those games where neither side knows what to expect from the other.

Our staff decided to make their picks for this week’s game and you can see the whole thing below as we call for a sweep of the Falcons this week.

The Steelers understand how important it is to get off to a fast start. So much will depend on the quarterback position and since we don’t know who will actually start for Pittsburgh, it muddies the waters even more. The Steelers defense is so good and we just don’t know what we will get with Falcons quarterback Kirk Cousins. I expect the Steelers defense to attack Cousins and keep him off balance, making life easier on the Steelers offense. Pittsburgh pulls off the close win thanks to the foot of kicker Chris Boswell. Steelers 20, Falcons 17 – Curt Popejoy, Managing Editor

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Predicting the Pittsburgh Steelers in the first week of the season is tough. With a new quarterback and coordinator, no one knows what this offense will look like. Though Falcons safeties Jessie Bates and Justin Simmons will make life harder on the passing game, I think Russell Wilson won’t commit turnovers and manage the game well enough to pull out a win. The defense will do what it does best and keep Kirk Cousins and Company under wraps. The Steelers will start the season 1-0 in a fairly low-scoring game Steelers 13, Falcons 10 – Allison Kohler, Contributor

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Steelers’ offense will prove that its struggles in the preseason were the building blocks needed to vastly improve from last year’s offensive woes, ultimately resulting in a satisfying victory over Atlanta. Steelers 31, Falcons 17 – Andrew Vasquez, Contributor

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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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