3 reasons Steelers are closer to the Super Bowl than we think

Continuity is what makes the Steelers special.

When you look at a team that makes changes at a smaller scale, a team like the Steelers you start to see a pattern. There are too many moving parts on an NFL roster to settle for a big overhaul and hope that the outcome meshes well enough to win it all. Every year Pittsburgh goes to win it all, and the front office is actively watching and looking at the small things they can do to improve.

Teams like the Steelers don’t just do great one year and then fall off of a cliff. You can watch their records trend upwards and downwards over a few seasons. The Steelers are trending upwards. Even with the impending loss of their hall of fame quarterback being bound to happen in the next year or two, this team is built to succeed in the long haul. The defense is young, and the core pieces of that defense are so talented that it is shocking to picture the Steelers having a losing season any time soon. The offense is there, with a healthier o-line and better game planning it could’ve done well enough to win a championship in 2020.

It is truly funny to me when people complain about how hard it is for the Steelers to finish seasons on a strong note. Hearing the phrase”our biggest problem is we suck at the end of the year” makes me laugh as just going back to 2016 the phrase was “our biggest problem is we suck at the start of the year so we never get a bye or home-field advantage”. As fans, we have to catch ourselves when making up these random trends and attributing them to a locker room or its culture. Keeping Tomlin around as his work starts to pay off, and his team is trending towards the summit is the right move. Maintain and improve, that is the Pittsburgh way through and through.

If they keep their roster as intact as possible and then plug and fill in draft picks to make improvements, it will bring success. That is how you see a team like Pittsburgh find such sustainable success. The continuity going from 2020 to 2021 is what is going to keep the Steelers competitive. The defense will be back, the offense will be run by a new coordinator who has coached every running back that played for Pittsburgh in 2020 aside from Benny Snell Jr. in college. He was with James Conner at Pitt, Jaylen Samuels at NC State, and Anthony McFarland in Maryland. He’s had a year to learn about the rest of his unit and he has drawn massive praise in college for making his system adaptable to his roster.

Even their new offensive coordinator is bringing some level of continuity while reuniting with some of his best college playmakers. This team will be back again in 2021 and it will again be up to the task of proving all of the doubters wrong, I for one will be looking forward to it.