What is the biggest obstacle for the Steelers?
By: Jake Rajala
The Pittsburgh Steelers (miraculously) earned a playoff ticket last season, but they will need to focus on unveiling success without their long-time quarterback Ben Roethlisberger next season. With that said, I’m going to simply outline the three biggest obstacles for PIT in 2022.
The ceiling of their starting QB
I actually believe that Mitchell Trubisky can throw around 25 touchdowns as the QB1 in Pittsburgh. I also believe that the potential starting QB Kenny Pickett, also known as the most pro-ready rookie QB, can make splash plays with the WR group and continue to make few turnovers (only 7 ints in his senior season).
Although, I don’t love the ceiling of either QB at this point in time. The lack of fireworks from the Steelers offense resulted in the Chiefs mopping the floor against the Steelers in the wild-card round. It will be a tall task for the new QB1 and the JuJu-less offense to upend explosive AFC teams.
The LB position
The Steelers should be able to unleash a quality pass defense without Joe Haden and I trust in the Steelers DL (T.J. Watt, Cameron Heyward) to continue to hunt down opposing signal-callers. Yet, I’m not exactly confident in Devin Bush in 2022. He hasn’t been a reliable starting LB (to say the least) and it’s unclear if Myles Jack can bounce back after being released from the Jaguars. The outlook of the Steelers LB group is quite hazy and they could really have a big swing in the success of the Steelers defense.
Cincinnati Bengals
The Cincinnati Bengals swept the Steelers last season and it’s clear Mike Tomlin needs to brew a superb plan to dismantle the Bengals in 2022. It would make a big difference if the Steelers could win one of their two match-ups against Cincy next season. The Bengals added La’el Collins and their offense should be overly prolific for the second straight season. The Steelers need to find a way to dissect the Bengals pass defense that isn’t even close to the same caliber as the Bengals passing offense.
