Welcome back to another edition of Read & React!
With training camp set to begin at the end of this month, we’ve nearly made it through the quiet portion of the NFL calendar. Soon, your feeds will be stuffed with the usual summer fare: stories on players who arrived at camp in the best shape of their lives, reports on who is “holding in” for a better contract, speculation on which veterans might be surprise cuts, and the unfortunate practice injuries that could flip the NFL season on its head. We’ll
dive into all of that in our next column when we preview training camp — so keep your eyes peeled for that.
Today, however, we are still tasked with finding Steelers topics to discuss while we wait for real football to begin. Now that the national media is starting to amp up for the NFL season, we’ll dive in on whether the expectations for the Steelers have reached a new low, Ryland will give a Redman Award primer, and Ryan will weigh in on whether improvement from the offense or defense is more vital to the Steelers advancing farther this season.
Let’s dive in!
Has the lack of Steelers hype gone too far?
RP: I don’t know how else Steelers fans should view national “coverage” on the team as anything other than disrespect at this point. Truthfully, I don’t put a lot of stock in Power Rankings because they are incredibly arbitrary, and no one grades on the same criteria. While they are typically fun conversation pieces — people like lists, it’s how our brains work — they are rarely predictive. Honestly, how many outlets predicted the Seahawks and Patriots would be good teams last year, let alone the final two teams playing?
So while I’m not particularly pressed by what specific number gets assigned to the Steelers in these rankings, I do believe it’s emblematic of a more annoying trend: it’s been a long time since the big players in NFL media have known how to talk about the Steelers.
To a certain extent, I get some of the misgivings and lack of in-depth analysis on the Steelers. The team hasn’t won a playoff game since January of 2017. The NFL is a quarterback-driven league, and the Steelers have had a revolving door under center since Ben Roethlisberger retired. Mike Tomlin’s non-losing seasons streak was both a monolith and a cliché, something an analyst could shrug and point to so the conversation could quickly move on to a media darling like the Ravens, Bills, Rams or Cowboys.
But therein lies my problem with recent coverage of our Steelers by “big media.” It’d be one thing if they laid out a well-thought-out argument against the team, and actually addressed the many changes the team undergoes in an offseason, especially this current one. But too often analysis of the Steelers is presented as an afterthought. Something barely worth acknowledging, with zero brainpower applied and no actual analysis taking place. Don’t think Aaron Rodgers has enough left in the tank? Well then, rank the Steelers as a fringe bottom-10 team while signal-boosting unproven teams — or declining ones — like the Chargers, Vikings, Commanders, Saints, and, most egregiously, the Bengals.
The Bengals especially prove as an interesting representation of what drives me nuts about the analysis provided by national outlets. The Bengals had a two-year peak in 2021 and 2022, where they lost in the Super Bowl and AFC Championship, respectively. There’s no argument against the notion that those two specific teams have reached higher than the Steelers of recent years. They have. Heck, I even understand that having a duo as talented as Joe Burrow and Ja’Marr Chase is something the Steelers haven’t had since peak Roethlisberger and Antonio Brown. Discussing a talented quarterback-receiver battery makes for entertaining TV and drives clicks online, regardless of win-loss records. However, that should weigh into the analysis at some point, right? Over the past three years, the Bengals have gone 24-27 and missed the playoffs entirely, while the Steelers have gone 30-21 and reached three straight playoffs, even if they haven’t won there.
Some of the Bengals’ woes have been due to poor health from Burrow, but a lot of there problems should be chalked up to a poorly run organization. Following the 2022 season, the Bengals defense went from a strength to a devastating weakness. The Bengals chose to pay their quarterback and two top receivers large sums of money, but let the core pieces of the defense either leave in free agency or age out of their primes. The offensive line wasn’t ever in elite territory, but has become one of the worst in the league in the years since the Super Bowl run. That the Bengals have drafted poorly in recent years only exacerbates both problems and yet is rarely factored in during these summer rankings.
Each of the past offseasons, regardless of which big media entity you follow, the Bengals have been spoken about as if they were not only obviously better suited than the Steelers to win the division,but as potential title contenders to boot. And yet, in reality, they have fallen flat on their face each time.
This year, the common line from pundits has been something along the lines of: The Bengals defense just has to be average, and they should be Super Bowl contenders again. Did any of them stop to question whether swapping Trey Hendrickson for Boye Mafe is an upgrade? Is acquiring declining, and at times disinterested, defensive tackles Dexter Lawrence (28 years old) and Jonathan Allen (31) the fix they’ve been missing? Was Bryan Cook, while a good player, the secret sauce to the Chiefs’ Super Bowl defenses that will transform the Bengals? Is Zac Taylor that much more trustworthy of a head coach than Mike McCarthy?
This isn’t just a narrative I’m conjuring off one list. Here’s how the Steelers have fared in the most recent Power Rankings I could find from notable media outlets, and how they compared to the Bengals:
Kimes is actually one of my favorite media personalities in the NFL space, so the ranking from her and Clark, a former Steeler, was especially irksome to take in. In the episode where they did their rankings, Kimes would nominate two teams at a time for Clark to choose from while working their way down the rankings. That a team like the Bengals was nominated in the top 10 despite their recent failures was bad enough; that the Steelers, the reigning AFC North champions, weren’t even nominated until 19, despite improving just as much on paper as Cincinnati, was mind-boggling. Clark made matters even more dire by declining to rank the Steelers over a deteriorating Vikings roster, an unproven Saints squad, and a Commanders roster with a ton of questions that is still riding off the vibes of what was likely a one-year wonder season in 2024.
I get the Steelers are closer to the NFL’s middle tier than they are to the true blue title contenders, but I find it hard to fathom that a division winner that so aggressively addressed its perceived weaknesses while retaining much of its core is ranked like a team that won’t even sniff the playoffs. Quarterback is important, and I’m far from a champion of Aaron Rodgers, but in what world does this roster finish with a top-10 pick if he’s healthy?
Ultimately, these rankings don’t matter one iota. I would encourage you not to get too worked up or stressed out over these silly little exercises. That said, it would be nice if the broader NFL media space would stop regurgitating the same lazy analysis every year just because they find the Steelers boring.
Steelers fans deserve better.
RB: I don’t disagree, and definitely second that the Bengals – and honestly, even the Ravens – seem to be rather overrated by NFL media. But during the offseason, when it’s easier to predict what teams will be good at rather than perceived weaknesses, it makes sense that rosters with the sky-high upside of Joe Burrow and Lamar Jackson-led offenses are going to be seeing some hype.
Like Ryan said, these rankings are silly and arbitrary. We know that. The authors know that. And this time of year, perceived upside seems to be the most important factor in deciding the team hierarchy.
To be fair, the national media’s perception of the Steelers definitely entered disrespectful territory at times during the Mike Tomlin era, when it seemed like every year there were some big-name pundits who projected Pittsburgh to fall below .500 despite Tomlin winning seasons being as certain as death and taxes.
But with a new coaching staff – and yes, I recognize Mike McCarthy was the safest floor option of Pittsburgh’s candidates – it’s not unreasonable to think that there might be more variance in this season’s results. McCarthy teams don’t bottom out, but they’re also not as freakishly consistent as Tomlin’s: McCarthy finished his time in Green Bay with two straight losing seasons, and went below .500 in two of his five years in Dallas.
Sure, Brett Hundley, Andy Dalton, and Cooper Rush, respectively, were the primary starters on three of those four losing teams, but let’s not pretend that Tomlin wasn’t gaining playoff berths with similarly questionable passers at the helm.
Aaron Rodgers, even at 42, is a better quarterback than Hundley, Rush, or any Steelers passer post-Ben Roethlisberger. But even when Rodgers was still in, or close, to his prime, he went 10-12-1 in his last two seasons with McCarthy.
Wins aren’t a quarterback stat and I certainly don’t mean to build an argument around this point, but rather just to show that the McCarthy/Rodgers pairing isn’t any sort of guarantee of a playoff berth.
Looking at NFL power rankings, outside of an NFL.com ranking of 15, most national sites seem to have Pittsburgh somewhere in the low 20s. SB Nation has Pittsburgh at No. 20 in the “chance at making the playoffs” tier, ESPN’s Football Power Index has the team at No. 22, and The Ringer has them at No. 20.
Yahoo Sports is still unveiling their ranking, but they’ve made it from Nos. 32-21 without mentioning the Steelers at the time of this writing, so Pittsburgh’s ranking seems imminent.
Teams commonly ranked just above or below the Steelers are the Colts, Commanders, and Panthers – which you might perceive as an insult, but it is an accurate depiction of franchises that are similarly in no man’s land.
Indianapolis was somehow the best team in football for a stretch last year before injuries and some expected regression blew the season up. The Commanders were in the NFC Championship in the 2024-25 season but failed to recapture the magic last year. And the Panthers somehow earned (?) the NFC South’s playoff bid last season but still managed to look far more competitive against the Rams in the wild card round than Pittsburgh has in any playoff game since 2016.
In short, while I disagree with some of the rankings, I don’t think the authors have faulty logic for thinking some of these teams might be better than the Steelers.
To Ryan’s point, many in the national media frustratingly haven’t seemed to grasp that the Steelers’ roster – that did win the AFC North last year – has only gotten better over this offseason. And those improvements could also very well extend to the coaching staff.
But at the same time, while the national media is rarely as in tune with the Steelers’ details as fans and team-specific writers, sometimes it does have a better macro view of the entire league. (And to be clear, I’m talking about the respected national writers here, not talking heads who are largely employed to make people mad on social media.)
As for myself, I think the Steelers are a tad underrated, especially when it comes to where the team will stand in the AFC North in 2026. But the consensus that Pittsburgh is a fringe playoff team, considering the roster’s limitations at quarterback, questions on defense, and lack of elite talent on offense, seems completely reasonable to me.
2026 Redman Award primer
RB: We’re still a ways off from any meaningful Redman Award updates, but it is about time to write a quick primer of some of the top names to be watching this training camp and preseason for BTSC’s most prestigious honor.
For the uninitiated, there’s a whole section of former NFL running back Isaac Redman’s Wikipedia page if you want to learn more. The short version is that it’s an honor bestowed on a recent Steelers sixth-round draft pick or lower who wins the hearts of fans during the preseason.
The ideal candidate is an obscure undrafted free agent who somehow becomes a cult hero over the course of three exhibition games in August. Past winners include Tuzar Skipper and Lew Nichols III – you get the idea.
This preseason, I’m pleased to announce, has the makings of an excellent Redman Award competition. For one, it helps that the team had a large draft class and added three players in Rounds 6-7 of this year’s draft alone.
This is far from an exhaustive list, but here are my top five candidates ahead of training camp:
- WR/RB Eli Heidenreich: Heidenreich is already a media darling. He’s a Navy graduate, from Pittsburgh, and got all the ESPN coverage when he was drafted by his hometown team in front of a hometown crowd. Plus, he’s a ridiculously fun player who drew athletic comparisons to Christian McCaffrey pre-draft as a do-it-all weapon in the Midshipmen offense. Truthfully, Heidenreich’s path to the 53-man roster is tough, but he seems destined to make some big plays in the preseason as both a receiver and a runner.
- QB Will Howard: Howard doesn’t really fit the “obscurity” criteria of the award as a national championship-winning quarterback at Ohio State, but he’s enough of a conversation piece already as a sixth-rounder who’s never even played an NFL snap that he has to be a Redman Award frontrunner. Even if you’re not a believer in his upside like a large contingent of Steelers fans, you’ve still probably engaged in a Howard vs. Mason Rudolph argument at some point. And if you ever felt strongly about either side of that debate, recognize that’s the Redman Award magic doing its thing.
- DL Gabriel Rubio: On the flip side of Howard is Rubio, the Steelers’ most recent sixth-rounder, who was so obscure coming out of Notre Dame that even most draft sickos didn’t know anything about his game. What we do know is that he’s a 321-pound defender and the son of former Steeler Angel Rubio. He’s a few run stuffs away from fan favorite status.
- LB Carson Bruener: Bruener isn’t all that unknown at this point after receiving serious praise from PFF and the Pro Football Writers of America following his work on special teams as a rookie in 2025. But he’s also a recent seventh-rounder with one career defensive snap. The son of Mark Bruener, Carson has some Steelers bloodlines himself and will get the chance to play more snaps at inside linebacker in the preseason. Not everyone is happy with the current state of Pittsburgh’s linebacker room, meaning good play from Bruener could lead to some hype about him getting more playing time in the regular season.
- WR/RB Max Hurleman: Hurleman was the Steelers’ Eli Heidenreich lite last preseason, even finishing as the runner-up in 2025 Redman Award voting. He’s a versatile offensive weapon who made the most of plenty of snaps last August, and could certainly do so again in 2026. Here’s some Redman Award lore: Hurleman played college football at Colgate and then walked on to Notre Dame. Dudes rock.
We’ll keep you covered on the Redman Award race this summer.
Is improving the offense or defense more important?
RP: With an all-new coaching staff in 2026, Steelers fans should expect to see changes on both sides of the ball this season. In the post-Roethlisberger years, Pittsburgh tried its best to build the roster in the image of great Steelers teams of the past. That meant an emphasis on defense and running the ball. The results were that the Steelers infamously fielded the most expensive defense in the league, and the running game never really elevated beyond league average. In Mike Tomlin’s final season as coach, the Steelers managed to win 10 games and the division, but the offense was far from explosive, and the defense — that the coaching staff foolishly hyped as “potentially historic” — failed to live up to its lofty expectations, resulting in another quick playoff exit.
Both units need to improve if the Steelers are to end their playoff victory drought. But which is it most important to see big improvement from? In my estimation, the no-brainer answer is the offense.
The reasoning isn’t all that complicated. While it’s typically important for a team with championship aspirations to have balance, there are many styles and ways to build a championship roster. The one truth that doesn’t change is this: the winning team is the one that scored more points. Again, I’m not saying anything revolutionary or profound here, but it’s easier to win if your team can score consistently. For the better part of the 2020s, that just hasn’t been something the Steelers can do. With the exception of Roethlisberger’s final season, the Steelers teams that have made the playoffs over the past half a decade have ranked near the bottom of the league in the average length of their offensive drives, and consequently the number of plays per drive.
The defense, while it’s disappointed at times, has still performed fairly well on average. The Pittsburgh pass rush remains near the top of the league, even in the years T.J. Watt has struggled with injuries. I’d argue that the offense’s inadequacies have put an extra strain on the defense throughout the season, wearing the unit down by the postseason. That certainly seemed to be the case during the 2023 and 2024 seasons when the defense was top -10 in scoring in-season, but folded in the postseason.
Consider too that in the Steelers’ four most recent playoff games, they have failed to score a touchdown in the first quarter, and they’ve failed to score a touchdown in the first half in their two most recent playoff contests. The Steelers offense has been exactly middle of the pack at scoring at their best in recent seasons, and have been much worse in others. More importantly, the Steelers have struggled to sustain drives on offense.
While the embarrassing loss to the Ravens in January of 2025 was largely pinned on the defense allowing 21 points in the first half, I’d argue they were put in a poor position by the Steelers offense managing a mere 17 plays, 49 yards, and zero points. The Steelers outscored the Ravens 14-7 in the second half, but it was too little, too late.
It was a similar story in January 2024 against the Bills. The Steelers surrendered 14 points in the first quarter while scoring none, then matched the Bills in scoring in each of the final three quarters on the way to a 31-17 loss. Once again, the Steelers defense took the brunt of the blame, but if you actually consider the context of the game, the offense was just as much at fault, if not more. After punting on their opening drive after just five plays, the Steelers were down 7-0 and swapped three-and-outs with the Bills. With 4:15 left in the first quarter, George Pickens fumbled on the first play of the Steelers’ drive, setting the Bills up with a short field, which they cashed in for the 14-0 lead. The two teams again swapped three-and-outs before Pittsburgh put together a 10-play drive that finished off the first quarter and carried into the second. The Steelers got to 2nd & Goal to go when Mason Rudolph threw a back-breaking interception. The Bills would drive 80 yards to make the score 21-0, and the Steelers never recovered.
You get the idea.
The defense doesn’t need to be elite for the Steelers to win, but the offense needs to be better than just average. The Steelers have preached playing complementary football for years now. It’s time for them to finally walk the walk. Here’s hoping Mike McCarthy is the coach to get them there.
Join in on Steelers R&R by sharing your takes on this week’s topics. Feel free to pitch future questions in the comment section or on Twitter/X: tag @_Ryland_B or @RyanParishMedia, or email us at steelersreadnreact@gmail.com.
