A Steelers offseason that will be remembered for all the wrong reasons has officially spooked Pittsburgh.
A column by Gene Collier in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette that we mentioned in one-liners Sunday details the damage, from Big Ben’s suspension to Santonio Holmes’ departure to season-ending injuries to Willie Colon and Limas Sweed. And like so much offseason news, there has been an overreaction to this avalanche of negative headlines.
“They were a 9-win team a year ago, with the quarterback generally upright and relatively upstanding,” Collier writes. “They were probably an 8-win team with the departure of Santonio Tweeter-dumb Holmes, probably a 7-win team in light of the formerly-upstanding quarterback’s four- to six-week suspension. They look like maybe a 6-win team with Colon’s Achilles unstrung.”
And that’s where the madness needs to stop. First of all, the Steelers were no ordinary nine-win team. They didn’t lose a game by two scores all season. Luck and special teams knocked them down a few pegs.
Second, it’s a fallacy to believe each team starts over where the last group left off. The Steelers are one of the very few organizations that start each season with an edge. They have the talent and system to expect to compete. They’ve dipped under .500 once since 1999 and still have a great quarterback that should be available for 12 games.
Look, I’ve been leading the Baltimore bandwagon. The Ravens should be considered division favorites. But they are slight favorites.
Vegas lists Pittsburgh as the sixth-most likely AFC team to make the Super Bowl with an over/under win total of nine, which sounds about right.
I’d still bet the over. (You know, for entertainment purposes.)
