Steelers Read & React: Are the Steelers who we thought they’d be?

So…let’s talk about Sunday. 

With their frustrating loss to the Chicago Bears, the Steelers not only lost the AFC North lead, but also tumbled out of playoff position altogether. If the season ended today,

Mike Tomlin and crew would be left crooning whatever the NFL postseason’s equivalent is to “I’ll Be Home for Christmas.”

With six games left on the schedule, the Steelers are technically still in the thick of things, at least mathematically speaking. However, with games against the Bills, Lions and a double dose of Ravens making up the majority of the remaining schedule, the margin for error has never been thinner. 

The Athletic’s playoff prediction model gives Pittsburgh just a 20% chance of making the playoffs. ESPN’s model is a little kinder, but still only gives the Black and Gold a 36% of getting in. 

Hello darkness my old friend.

Let’s be honest. Heading into this season, neither of us here at R&R were big believers in the Steelers’ chances of making a deep playoff run. When the Steelers made only a handful of cost-effective moves, and once again insisted on only rostering one legitimate outside receiver – this time by trading for DK Metcalf, but also trading away George Pickens – we wondered if they were attempting to quietly tank the season.

Our outlook changed little after the big trade with Miami. This column was skeptical about the “win now” mentality the team was selling over the summer, with “cautious optimism” being the most enthusiasm we could muster in our review of the trade. 

What we felt then, and have for quite some time, is something many of you have expressed to us as well: these Steelers aren’t without talent, but they consistently and infuriatingly find ways to come up short. The reasons behind this have been pored over ad nauseam each year since the Steelers last won in the postseason.

We’re not really interested in relitigating those same talking points, at least not until the season is officially over for the home team. Instead, we’re hoping to embrace the holiday spirit. In true Thanksgiving fashion, this week R&R will heat up some leftovers by reviewing our preseason predictions. Then we’ll try to find something to be thankful for with the Steelers. 

Predictions review

Back in July and again before the season opener, R&R made several predictions about the Steelers’ season, as well as some predictions about their AFC North rivals. 

RB: A common complaint about sports media is that they don’t hold themselves accountable enough when it comes to the time-honored tradition of dishing out “takes.”

Well, that’s not the case here at BTSC. 

And that’s especially true as I’m not exactly proud of my July AFC North predictions seeing daylight again given how they turned out. We’ll start there so we can end on a better note with my early September preseason takes. 

Behold – my July AFC North predictions (three varying levels of risk): 

(You can laugh, I don’t mind). 

• Mild take: Derrick Henry fights off Father Time for another year
• Medium take: The Browns’ defense underperforms yet again
• Spicy take: The Bengals-Shemar Stewart drama becomes irreparable

It turns out my mild prediction was not as safe as I figured it would be, given that Derrick Henry has definitely shown some signs of age this year. After rushing for nearly 2,000 yards in 2024 with 5.9 yards per carry, Henry sits at 871 and 4.7 through 11 games in 2025. It hasn’t been a bad season by any means, but Henry has been a step slower and clearly less effective without a healthy Lamar Jackson. 

My medium take couldn’t have been more wrong, as the Browns’ defense continues to chug along at a high level despite the team’s 3-8 overall record. They’re second in yards allowed, 12th in points allowed, and managed a whopping 10 sacks against the Raiders on Sunday. Myles Garrett is playing out of his mind. 

My spicy take is easier to defend as the entire purpose is to go big or go home, but it still was wrong, as Stewart did eventually agree to terms with Cincinnati in late July. However, Stewart’s production issues in college and lack of prep in the pros were highlighted by his failing to record a sack in his first five NFL games. Unfortunately, he’s since landed on injured reserve. 

…Now, for my generally-more-correct takes from early September, where Ryan and I handed out some preseason superlative picks for the Steelers along with some more AFC North predictions:

Steelers picks

• Most impactful addition: Jalen Ramsey
• New pick: Still Jalen Ramsey 

I’ll note that I’m purposefully skipping right tackle Troy Fautanu here as I did in the original article. I wanted to pick exclusively from 2025 draft picks and free agent signings, even if Fautanu is still in many ways a new addition and he’s certainly been impactful. 

But of those truly new additions, Ramsey has made the biggest impact. I still have my qualms with the Steelers’ choice to trade one aging defensive asset for another, but none of that is Ramsey’s fault, and he’s largely lived up to his billing as a plus starter at both safety and cornerback. 

Ramsey has been a tone-setter and playmaker on the back end of the Steeler defense, and I wouldn’t count him as one of the unit’s many big problems. Ramsey has been a pleasure to watch in the black and gold. 

• Most explosive: D.K. Metcalf
• New pick: Jaylen Warren 

Metcalf has definitely been explosive at times for the Pittsburgh offense, but the team has failed to properly utilize one of the biggest aspects of his game: deep shots downfield. 

Warren, on the other hand, has generated big plays more consistently and continues to be a ball of energy whenever he gets a touch. 

• Most reliable: Chris Boswell 
• New pick: Still Chris Boswell

This hasn’t been as big of a Chris Boswell season as years past, but the Steelers kicker remains the model of consistency. 

Yes, he had one uncharacteristic miss against the Chargers earlier this season (his other misses have been because of bad footing or a block), but there’s still not another name I’d trust more to send a 57-yarder through the uprights at Acrisure. I’m still shocked by how low my stress level is when No. 9 heads out onto the field. 

• Best fantasy football asset: Jaylen Warren
• New pick: Still Jaylen Warren 

You can essentially copy my Metcalf/Warren blurb from earlier here. Metcalf has been fine. Warren has been more consistent. No. 30 has been the most reliable Steelers asset in fantasy football this year. 

• Late bloomer: Kaleb Johnson
• New pick: Derrick Harmon 

I got the “late” part right with Kaleb Johnson. Still waiting for him to bloom. 

That moment could still come this season, but with Kenneth Gainwell continuing to make plays, it’ll be tough for Johnson to truly become a part of the running back rotation barring injury. 

In the spirit of the exercise, I’ll switch to first-round rookie Derrick Harmon, who has enjoyed a good rookie season for Pittsburgh but hasn’t recorded a sack since Week 6. As expected, his impact has been seen more on tape than on the stat sheet to start his career, but we might see some more splash plays in the final stretch of the season once he returns from his knee injury. 

AFC North (non-Steelers) picks 

• Breakout player: Nate Wiggins
• New pick: Still Nate Wiggins 

I admittedly haven’t watched a ton of Ravens football yet this year, but all the reviews of Wiggins in 2025 have been glowing. He’s tied for seventh in the NFL with three interceptions, and per Next Gen Stats, his 68.2 passer rating allowed is the fifth-lowest among cornerbacks with at least 40 targets. 

To be fair, no AFC North corner has had a bigger breakout than James Pierre the Bengals’ D.J. Turner, who currently leads the NFL in passes defensed with a whopping 15. But my pick of Wiggins has still stood the test of time. 

• Biggest headache (offense): Ravens’ run game 
• New pick (I guess): Still the Ravens run game? 

The Steelers haven’t played the Ravens yet, so I feel like I should stick with my original pick until they do. As mentioned earlier, the Baltimore offense hasn’t been clicking like it did in 2024, but the Ravens are back in the division lead and should heat up as Lamar Jackson gets healthier. They will still be a test. 

The horrible things Joe Flacco and Ja’Marr Chase did to the Pittsburgh defense in Week 7 are worth bringing up here, but Pittsburgh bottled the duo up when the teams rematched in Week 11. 

• Biggest headache (defense) Myles Garrett 
• New pick: Still Myles Garrett

Garrett was kept from recording a sack in the Browns and Steelers’ first matchup, but his gravity in the game was still undeniable. 

Since then, Garrett has caught fire, with 14 sacks in five games. He’s still my pick for biggest headache, even if the Steelers did a good job slowing him down earlier this year. 

RP: Good stuff, Ryland. Predictions are a crapshoot, and we both have some hits as well as some swings and misses. 

A quick recap of my July predictions: 

• Mild take: Kenny Pickett will start a game against the Steelers.
• Medium take: The Bengals will miss the playoffs AGAIN.
• Spicy take: The Ravens will be floating around .500 through October.

In hindsight, I probably should have switched my mild and medium takes. We never got a chance to see Kenny Pickett, as he was traded to Las Vegas, but I still feel like I was on the right track with this one. I thought the Browns’ chances of finishing the season with Flacco under center were slim to none, and in that I was right! I just never could have imagined he’d be traded to the Bengals. 

In defense of my “medium take,” the media coverage around the Bengals this summer was riding a high. Cincinnati had managed to keep both of its star receivers around via extension, and the NFL media landscape presented this mostly as a positive. Plenty of talking heads predicted the Bengals would make the playoffs. My skepticism of the Bengals being good with their poor roster construction seems to have been a minority opinion at the time. 

As such, to the NFL media at large, I once again say, “Oh my sweet summer child, what do you know about AFC North football?” Surely paying a huge portion of your cap to your oft-injured quarterback and two receivers – at the detriment of your offensive line and entire defense – couldn’t backfire? Right? How the people charged with covering the media so often forget how important trench play is to winning football games is beyond me. 

As for my “spicy” take, not to pat myself on the back, but I absolutely nailed that. 

“Last year, the Ravens were incredibly fortunate with injury luck, with none of their major contributors on either side of the ball facing any long-term health issues. Can we expect that again, even with the Ravens mostly running it back…Any injuries early in their season to the offensive line or secondary would complicate an already difficult stretch of their schedule.” 

Sure enough, the Ravens dealt with injuries to the secondary early on and were the league’s worst defense through the first week of October. Lamar Jackson’s injury all but guaranteed my prediction would come true.

“I think a world exists where the Ravens have four or five losses by Week 10 (at Minnesota).”

The Ravens sank to 1-5 but, unfortunately for the Steelers, haven’t lost since October 12. Still, Baltimore was 3-5 heading into the Minnesota game, so my prediction came true. 

Steelers picks

• Most impactful addition: Troy Fautanu
• New pick: Still Troy Fautanu

I didn’t limit my options as much as Ryland did in this category, because spiritually, Fautanu is a new addition after only playing one game before injury in 2024. He hasn’t been perfect in what is essentially his redshirt rookie year, but he’s acquitted himself well to the pro game. But don’t take my word for it, he’s had former NFL offensive linemen compliment his play this year – including one in a tweet below. With the Steelers getting another strong season from center Zach Frazier and right guard Mason McCormick having taken another step up in play, the right side of the Steelers’ line is looking like a strength they can count on in the years to come. 

• Most explosive: Jalen Ramsey 
• New pick:  Nick Herbig

Ramsey has been an enforcer and a tone setter on defense all season, so I don’t regret making him my choice before the season began. He had some bumps and bruises playing outside corner – though the scheme issues did him no favors – but has mostly been a stabilizing force since moving to safety.

Given the chance to reassess and pick again, I’m still staying on the defensive side of the ball. Jaylen Warren and Darnell Washington each have some angry runs to their name, but don’t create enough explosive plays to take this category. DK Metcalf started off strong, and he’s tied for the team lead in touchdowns, but the Steelers have struggled to feature him, and he hasn’t scored since Week 8. 

So I’m going with Nick Herbig. Herbig has been extremely productive in relief of Alex Highsmith, so much so that he will likely demand a pretty sizeable pay raise when his contract is up after 2026. Few players get off the line faster than Herbig, and he’s seemingly got a similar nose for the ball in key moments that his fellow Badger, TJ Watt, does. 

• Most reliable: Zach Frazier
• New pick: Still Zach Frazier

Zach Frazier has quietly been a top-5 center since entering the league. He blocks well in both phases of offense, is rarely penalized, and rarely beaten. He’s exactly what the Steelers hoped to get when they drafted him in the second round a year ago. The Steelers have a proud history of talented centers, and Frazier’s well on his way to joining those ranks. 

• Best fantasy football asset: Steelers D/ST
• New pick: Jaylen Warren 

Aaron Rodgers has the most total points in standard PPR, but doesn’t stack up well to the other quarterbacks in the league. The defense has generated sacks and turnovers, both great for fantasy points, but they’ve simply allowed too much scoring and had too many games without a turnover to be the pick. 

That leaves Warren, Metcalf, and Kenneth Gainwell. Metcalf has the most points by a slim margin in standard PPR, but he’s WR24. In the same format, Warren is RB19 and Gainwell is RB22. The nod goes to Warren here. 

• Late bloomer: Kaleb Johnson 
• New pick: James Pierre

While the prompt didn’t limit us to rookie players, both Ryland and I took that slant and selected Kaleb Johnson in our original predictions. I’m still not out on Johnson, who I think has looked solid in his rushing attempts this season. However, badly messing up that kick return in Week 2 landed him in the dog house early in the year and seemingly ruined any chance at Tomlin and Smith giving him any opportunities this year. 

Looking at the rest of the rookie class, it’s fair to make a case for Harmon, but I’m concerned that his latest knee injury already has him ruled out by Tuesday. If he misses much time, it’s hard to give him this title. Jack Sawyer and Yahya Black are the only other rookies likely to get playing time, so they theoretically could take this one home. 

But I’m going with James Pierre, the undrafted cornerback who’s on his second stint with Pittsburgh and who has shone with extended playing time this year. 

AFC North (non-Steelers) picks 

• Breakout player: Carson Schwesinger
• New pick: Still Carson Schwesinger

One of my favorite prospects during the draft, but I hate that he ended up in the AFC North. Athletic, smart, constant effort, Schwesinger has been the full package this year, and it’s one of the reasons the Browns have bounced back on defense this year. If Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah is able to return at full strength next year, the Browns might have the best linebacker duo in the division.  

• Biggest headache (offense): Ja’Marr Chase
• New pick: Still Ja’Marr Chase

I don’t see any reason to change this pick. Chase tuned the Steelers up for 16 receptions, 161 yards, and a touchdown in their first meeting. And while he didn’t produce much in the second meeting, he baited Ramsey into an ejection by spitting on him, and then refused to own up to it, initially denying it happened at all. He only just this week issued a canned apology taking blame, but only because the NFL’s cameras are everywhere and caught him in his original lie. If that’s not a headache, I don’t know what is.   

• Biggest headache (defense): Kyle Hamilton
• New pick: Probably still Kyle Hamilton, right?

Truthfully, with the Steelers still having three division games left to play, we haven’t seen any single player make themselves a headache on this side of the ball. Myles Garrett didn’t register a sack against the Steelers, and the Bengals barely have a defense. So I’ll stick with my original pick of Hamilton, who has once again saved the Ravens’ defense, just in the exact opposite way he had to in 2024. 

The obligatory Thanksgiving section: What are you most thankful for? (Steelers edition)

RB: Once again, we at Read & React are committed to shining a light on some optimistic aspects of the season when the days are dark for the Steelers. 

Surprisingly, perhaps, there are still some things to be thankful for amid a disappointing 2025 campaign. 

My pick was actually pretty easy: The offensive line has been pretty solid, no? 

Sure, Aaron Rodgers’ lightning-quick time to throw has helped out pass protection statistics, and Darnell Washington and the jumbo package have helped the run game tremendously. 

But after an offseason of hand-wringing about how potentially bad this group could be, they’ve risen above preseason expectations without a doubt. Pittsburgh has the lowest quarterback pressure rate (22.6%) in the NFL per Next Gen Stats, and while the team’s yards before contact in the run game (0.71) is a measly 30th, the Steelers are still top 10 in success rate on the ground (44.2%). 

Zach Frazier and Troy Fautanu look like cornerstones for the future. Mason McCormick has developed into a starting-caliber guard. Isaac Seumalo and Broderick Jones have had their issues, but have largely turned in solid seasons. 

Yes, the run game is still a mess in some ways, but in pass protection this group has been well up to NFL standards, even if Rodgers’ pocket presence has made them look worse than they are at times. 

This is the first year we’ve seen the Pittsburgh O-line as general manager Omar Khan intended. Is it perfect? Far from it. But for an exceedingly young group in an offense without many high-end skill position players, the results have certainly been promising – and that’s all we were asking for before the season. 

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 [e-mail].