This could make or break a successful Steelers preseason

This year’s NFL preseason slate begins in under a month, and few are happier about that than the Pittsburgh Steelers, due to not only the promise they’ve exhibited in prior installments but also the massive chip resting on their shoulder.

This chip is in no way new, as it’s the same one the team’s had lingering around for a while now (especially the past few years)—one bound by futile attempts to shine as a true threat in the ever-so-deep AFC.

Yes, I am very much aware of the fact that the preseason holds no weight in whether that trend changes. But, it does have the potential to set a certain tone for the games that follow, along with giving onlookers a better idea of who could shine in said games.

We can get more into that stuff once we get closer to showtime, but today, I wanted to tackle something that will hover around not a single game, but the entire preseason stretch—and why so early? Because it’s quite a hefty need that can already be blatantly seen: Defense.

This is a take that could certainly stir up a debate, as with the Steelers both having a new-look QB room and prioritizing offensive line help in this year’s draft, an argument for the offense being the top watch is quite easy to make. However, unlike that for the offense, the case for the defense goes beyond looking solely at the Steelers themselves and also brings whom they’re playing into account.

With that said, let’s take a look at the cast.

Pittsburgh’s preseason opponents share one common theme

The three Steelers preseason games consist of two home battles against the Houston Texans and Buffalo Bills before a road trip to Detroit to face the Lions. Want to hear a fun fact about those teams? They all finished in the top 12 last year for offense, with two of them, the Lions and Bills, finishing with the third-and-fourth-best, respectively.

The same cannot be said about their defensive prowess, with only one being in the top 12 and none finishing in the top eight (Buffalo was ninth). This is not to imply that any of their defenses were bad, but they were visibly less dominant.

Now I know what you’re thinking: “Austin, we can’t hold the upcoming preseason squads to the statistical standard of the starting squads!” You’re right, we can’t, but what we can do is remember how every football team is guided by a little something called “coaching,” and if that deserves any credit for these teams popping off offensively (and it does, by the way), then we need to expect to see at least some remnants of it next month.

That’s what has me thinking the defense is, at least by application, all the more crucial of a watch than the offense. Yes, the preseason is meant to be used as an opportunity for testing out the new guys and getting the rookies as ready as they can be for what’s next, and that’s obviously something both sides of the ball need to focus on every year.

The other part of that, though, is the preparation for how teams are going to operate as a complete unit in the regular season when wins and losses are actually going to mean something. That is much more important to me than run-of-the-mill experimentation with newbies that will always point toward the need for improvement.

So, to recap: The aforementioned experimentation does matter, and there are a couple of defensive players that we can be sure to watch for once we’re closer to the preseason schedule. But, what matters most today and overall is the best depiction of how the Steelers are going to look throughout the regular season. If that’s their defensive play-calling, then that’s all I care to address until further notice.