Steelers ranked 19th in recent training camp power rankings

Touchdown Wire recently released their training camp power rankings, and the Steelers came in as the 19th best team. Here’s what they had to say.

The Pittsburgh Steelers have been one of the most disrespected teams in the NFL this offseason, and that trend doesn’t seem to be ending any time soon.

Five of the Steelers six losses in 2018 were decided by one score, and four were decided by 3 just 3 points. Still, Pittsburgh finished with a 9-6-1 record, though their team statistics showed that they were a better team than their record would indicate.

Despite all of this, there are media outlets who continue to disrespect the Steelers on a monumental level.

Doug Farrar of Touchdown Wire recently ranked each NFL team from 1st to 32nd. He slated Pittsburgh as just the 19th best team heading into training camp. Here is what he had to say about the Steelers ranking:

"This has the feel of 2012 and 2013 for the Steelers, when they limped along at 8-8 in both seasons as a needed rebuild happened. The loss of Antonio Brown is an obvious and major hit to the offense, though JuJu Smith-Schuster is a fine wide receiver. Running back James Conner doesn’t have Le’Veon Bell’s wide skill set, but he proved able as Bell held out for the entire season. Bell’s now a Jet all the way, which means that the Steelers are trotting out No. 2 players at two top skill positions to replace two No. 1 guys."

Farrar went on to bash the Steelers secondary in his review. It’s interesting to note that he has the Steelers planted well into the bottom half of the league in his assessment.

Like many analysts, I believe Farrar is overvaluing the impact of players like Antonio Brown and Le’Veon bell to the success of Pittsburgh’s football team.

When Bell last suited up in 2017, he took a major dip in efficiency – dropping nearly an entire yard per carry from the previous year (4.9 to 4.0) and adding just one run of 20 or more yards every 111 carries.

Brown, was still terrific in 2018, but Ben Roethlisberger and the Josh Dobbs still threw 11 interceptions his direction last season, and he was a cancer inside the locker room.

It’s very possible that Pittsburgh’s offense could take a sizable step back this season without Antonio Brown, but they could be a more efficient offense this season.

Putting teams like the Titans Panthers, and Jaguars ahead of the Steelers in the latest power rankings is bad enough, but declaring them the 19th best team in the league is straight-up disrespectful.

The Steelers still stand to be a competitive team again in 2019, and rankings like this will only add fuel to the fire for Pittsburgh this season. I don’t know where they will finish this season, but it’s very unlikely that they will be the 19th best team in the league.