If the NFL season ended today the Pittsburgh Steelers would be the No. 3 seed in the AFC. There'd also be a lot of disappointed people who want to see several more weeks of regular season football before the playoffs begin. Mike Tomlin has authored many spectacular coaching performances in his soon-to-be Hall of Fame career but doing all this with a combination of Justin Fields and Russell Wilson is among his best—though they are slightly better than the duo of Duck Hodges and Mason Rudolph, which actually worked enough to play into mid-January back in 2019.
The Steelers are riding especially high this week after vanquishing the hated Baltimore Ravens last Sunday. ESPN's Dan Orlovsky was there, though, to bring them back to Earth with variations of the same take on Thursday morning's programs. First on Get Up he said that Pittsburgh is not a Super Bowl contender if even its defense is Super Bowl-caliber.
Orlovsky identified the offense's struggles in the redzone and Wilson's proclivity for hanging onto the football too long as major concerns. And before you get mad at him, know that his job is not to cheerlead but to figure out why things will or will not happen.
"I do not believe the team is a Super Bowl contender."
— Get Up (@GetUpESPN) November 21, 2024
—@danorlovsky7 on the Pittsburgh Steelers ✍️ pic.twitter.com/BkEWdELX7g
Later on First Take, Orlovsky went even farther, saying the Steelers aren't a top-three team in the AFC.
"You are not going to beat [Lamar Jackson, Josh Allen or Patrick Mahomes] kicking field goals," he said.
.@danorlovsky7 doesn't believe the Steelers are a top-three team in the AFC 😯
— First Take (@FirstTake) November 21, 2024
"You're not going to beat [Lamar Jackson, Josh Allen or Patrick Mahomes] kicking field goals." 👀 pic.twitter.com/Xggwk7rr4D
Look, he is probably correct. Not that my opinion means anything but the Steelers are probably the fourth-best team and fourth-most likely team in the AFC to play in the Super Bowl. But they literally just beat Lamar Jackson on the strength of six Chris Boswell field goals. It seems wild to say something cannot happen when it happened a few days ago.
Nowhere in my job description do the words "figure out what's going to happen or not going to happen" yet the Steelers could definitely make and win the Super Bowl—especially if they get the No. 2 seed. It's not like Kansas City has proven to be a juggernaut and Buffalo in the postseason has some demons to exorcize. Same with Jackson and the Ravens.
We'll see. The great part is that if the Steelers do enjoy great postseason success, any pundit who didn't believe can simply say they didn't believe at that time but were eventually convinced. It's such a great gig.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Dan Orlovsky Does Not Believe the Pittsburgh Steelers Are Super Bowl Contenders.
