Everything to know about the Pittsburgh Steelers before the 2024 season

The Pittsburgh Steelers have never experienced a losing season under Mike Tomlin. Is that about to change?

In an era spanning 17 years and counting, the Pittsburgh Steelers have never had a losing season under head coach Mike Tomlin. His second season leading the team culminated in a Super Bowl victory, but since longtime quarterback Ben Roethlisberger’s late-career decline, the Steelers haven’t done much more than break even. In fact, they haven’t won a playoff game in more than seven years.

With a reset on offense and a defense of stars, Tomlin and the Steelers are ready to try running the gauntlet again. With less than a month until the start of the NFL preseason, we’re breaking down the biggest storylines around the Pittsburgh Steelers.

The Offense

The Steelers had one of the worst offenses in the league last year. With a disaster of the passing game and an offensive coordinator with an aversion to throwing to the middle of the field, they had to turn to running the ball behind a struggling offensive line. They fired OC Matt Canada late in the season, replacing him with former Atlanta Falcons head coach Arthur Smith, and moved on from young quarterback Kenny Pickett in favor of a pair of quarterbacks searching for salvation. Can this new-look offense take Pittsburgh further this year?

The Quarterbacks

In an impressive bang-for-your-buck move, the Steelers managed to bring in Russell Wilson for just $1.2 million. For context, the average 2024 salary of the other three starting quarterbacks in the AFC North is $23.6 million. 

With the Seattle Seahawks, Wilson won a Super Bowl in 2013, led the league in passing touchdowns in 2017, and made the All-Pro roster in 2019. Of course, he’s coming off back-to-back seasons of disappointment with the Denver Broncos, which is what allowed the Steelers to get him so cheaply. But even if he can’t return to the heights of his Seattle days, Wilson should be a cheap upgrade from Kenny Pickett.

And the Steelers took out an insurance policy on Wilson in the form of Justin Fields. The former first-round pick only won 10 games in his three seasons with the Chicago Bears, but he showed an unexpected dynamism on a team that did him no favors in terms of supporting cast, racking up 2,220 rushing yards and setting an NFL record for most rushing yards by a quarterback in a single game. Fields still looked like a work-in-progress at the end of last season, and the Steelers likely won’t be afraid to turn to him if Wilson struggles.

The wild card in all of this is Arthur Smith. Fantasy football managers may hate Smith, but he turned Ryan Tannehill into one of the league’s most efficient quarterbacks when he served as offensive coordinator for the Tennessee Titans. He likes to take pressure off of his quarterbacks by leaning heavily on the run game, utilize play-action, and dial up easy passes over the middle of the field. 

The area for concern is that Wilson has always preferred riskier sideline throws (the kind Matt Canada also preferred). So there could be some tension between the playcaller and the passer, but if they find common ground, they could make magic. And if they don’t, Smith will no doubt find creative ways to put Fields’s rushing abilities to use.

The Playmakers

Whoever is under center for the Steelers might have to make do with an underwhelming group of pass-catchers. Wide receiver George Pickens is good at playing physically for the ball, similar to Drake London in Arthur Smith’s Atlanta offense, but overall, this is a unit that is average at best, thanks to the decision to trade away Diontae Johnson. The Steelers did draft Michigan wideout Roman Wilson in the third round of this year’s draft, but expecting him to hit the ground running as a top receiver might be far-fetched. There’s still the possibility of acquiring a big-name wide receiver via a trade. San Francisco 49ers standout Brandon Aiyuk is the focus of many trade rumors at the moment, and bringing in him or someone like him would significantly raise the ceiling of this offense.

But again, Arthur Smith does take a run-first approach, and Pittsburgh has a decent duo of running backs in Najee Harris and Jaylen Warren. Harris is a pure bruiser, while Warren uses his shiftiness to slip away from defenders on a regular basis. Smith is sure to scheme up some exotic runs that capitalize on the thunder-and-lighting pair.

The O-Line

As much as Kenny Pickett struggled last season, the offensive line did him no favors. But with some heavy investments this offseason and last, the Steelers may have turned a weakness into a strength. They spent their first two draft picks on tackle Troy Fautanu of Washington and center Zach Frazier of West Virginia, and both are expected to join last year’s first-rounder, tackle Broderick Jones of Georgia, as starters. And if guard James Daniels shows signs of struggle early on, we could see fourth-round pick Mason McCormick of South Dakota State.

Overall, it looks like Wilson and/or Fields will be operating behind a top-10 line this year.

The Defense

As anemic as the offense was last year, this was still a playoff team. Credit for that belongs to the defense, which was one of the best in the league thanks to its stellar pass-rushing chops. Add in free agent linebacker Patrick Queen of the Baltimore Ravens, rookie linebacker Payton Wilson of North Carolina State, and potential for an improved secondary, and there’s plenty to be excited about with the highest-paid defense in the league.

The D-Line

For the first time in his career, defensive tackle Cameron Heyward started to show signs of decline last season. Even still, you’d be hard-pressed to find a better pair of edge defenders than T.J. Watt and Alex Highsmith. Watt in particular is, of course, one of the best players in football, and he led the league with a whopping 20 sacks last year. If Heyward, who turned 35 in March, can find a way to bounce back, this should be the most feared defensive line in the NFL.

The Secondary

The anchors of the coverage unit are safety Minkah Fitzpatrick and second-year cornerback Joey Porter, Jr. Fitzpatrick’s play has been volatile lately, especially last year as he dealt with lingering injuries. Porter, meanwhile, showed great potential as a rookie but does still need some development to be a well-rounded corner. 

If we see a rejuvenated Fitzpatrick with a clean bill of health and an improved version of Porter, the secondary should be able to contribute enough to make this a true shut-down defense.

The Competition

Unfortunately for the Steelers, their schedule does them no favors. The AFC North is one of the toughest divisions in the league – three of its teams made the playoffs last year, and the fourth isn’t far removed from a Super Bowl appearance.

Baltimore Ravens

The defending divisional champions are led by the reigning MVP, quarterback Lamar Jackson. As long as Jackson stays healthy, Baltimore has a solid floor. And they have a new weapon in the running game with free agent addition Derrick Henry. But the Ravens are also dealing with a lot of turnover that could hurt their quest to return to the AFC Championship game: defensive coordinator Mike Macdonald, one of the best young defensive minds in the league, took a head coaching job with the Seattle Seahawks; and wideout Odell Beckham, guard Kevin Zeitler, edge defender Jadeveon Clowney, linebacker Patrick Queen, and safety Geno Stone are just a handful of the names Baltimore lost in free agency.

Cincinnati Bengals

Cincinnati’s 2023 season didn’t go according to plan, with star quarterback Joe Burrow out of commission for most of the year. But he’ll be back this year, and he still has one of the best pairs of receivers a quarterback could ask for in Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins. Like the Ravens, they’ve experienced some turnover, but have done a great job of offsetting the losses: running back Joe Mixon is replaced with Zack Moss; wide receiver Tyler Boyd is replaced with rookie Jermaine Burton; tight end Irv Smith is replaced with Mike Gesicki; tackle Jonah Williams is replaced with Trent Brown; defensive tackle D.J. Reader is replaced with Sheldon Rankins; and cornerback Chidobe Awuzie is replaced with safety Geno Stone.

Cleveland Browns

Was there a stranger team in 2023 than the Browns? Quarterback Deshaun Watson went down with injury, as did his backup Dorian Thompson-Robinson and star running back Nick Chubb, but Cleveland kept finding ways to win with a 38-year-old Joe Flacco under center. Watson and Chubb are back now, and the Browns have added several depth pieces to an already intimidating defense led by Myles Garrett. 

Overall Outlook

Sportsbooks are putting the over/under of Steelers wins at 8.5 For context, that’s the same line they faced last year, and they finished with a 10-7 record. A brutal schedule means returning to the playoffs is difficult but not impossible. They likely won’t be serious contenders for the AFC North title without bringing in a big-name receiver, but another winning season for Mike Tomlin is likely in the cards if things go well. But if neither of the two new quarterbacks work out, even a great defense may not be able to propel this team beyond seven or eight wins.

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