Are the Steelers underrated entering the 2021 season

The Steelers boast an underrated and potentially explosive offense.

On the offensive side of the ball, the Steelers lost Maurkice Pouncey, James Conner, and Alejandro Villanueva, however, things could have been much worse. Few expected the Steelers to retain JuJu Smith-Schuster, but they were able to find a way to make it happen while doing it at a team-friendly cap hit. As for the three key losses to free agency, while it was tough to lose these three, improvement was needed at each spot, and none of the three were performing at a high enough level to justify their salaries.

Pouncey and Villanueva both were an integral part of the Steelers offensive line over the past few years, however, neither was quite the same player last year. The dip in production for both led the team to go a different direction at center and left tackle.  As for Conner, while he showed promise early on in his Steelers career, he has struggled with injuries over the past few years, and the team determined that they couldn’t rely on him to stay healthy, and it was best to part ways.

While the running game was the team’s biggest issue last season, the team was smart to let those three walk in free agency, as getting younger and cheaper at the positions was imperative. The team added Najee Harris, Kendrick Green, and Dan Moore Jr., in the draft as the replacements for their three biggest losses in free agency in hopes that this would improve the running game.

As for the passing game, Roethlisberger is still under center and has one of the deepest wide receiver rooms in the NFL. Few teams have a group that features four receivers as high quality as Diontae Johnson, Smith-Schuster, Chase Claypool, and James Washington. Roethlisberger also has Eric Ebron and newcomers Pat Freirmuth and Harris as weapons to utilize in a potentially potent passing offense. This potent passing offense combined with an improved running game makes the Steelers a legitimate threat in the division.