Combining the powerful note that the Steelers ended last season on with their upcoming schedule surrounds them with quite a lot of hype. However, there is a lot of uncertainty surrounding them as well, so it’s going to be interesting to see how strong they look when facing each of their opponents—or at least some of them.
While there are some opponents that the Steelers should be expected to win or lose against for rather straightforward reasons, there are some others that fall into a much grayer area. This mainly stems from how similarly their 2022-23 journeys unfolded to Pittsburgh’s.
To me, that means how well the Steelers hold up against each one will display how well they’ve improved as a team (assuming that they in fact have improved). I’ve made a list of three matchups that I believe stand out as the best ones to refer to when approaching such a situation.
And please note that the list you are about to see has nothing to do with predictions, as the goal here is not to make a case for how good or bad Pittsburgh will look against each listed game.
Rather, I am merely acknowledging them as three that could best show us where Pittsburgh’s limits lie. If the Steelers lose these games, it could show that they haven’t grown very much since last season. Yet if they win them, it could confirm that they’ve climbed above where we last saw them on the NFL totem pole.
This is also assuming that Pittsburgh doesn’t experience any steep rise or decline over the course of this offseason. In other words, if we end up seeing a year as good as 15-2 or as bad as 2-15, this list will have essentially lost all purpose.
But, since neither of those records are probable, there is no reason why we can’t press on. So without further ado, here are three games—in no particular order—that I feel will ultimately define the worth of the 2023-24 Steelers.