There are plenty of optimistic ways to look at the union of Aaron Rodgers and the Pittsburgh Steelers this season, but not everybody shares that opinion. Former NFL GM Mike Tannenbaum had a particularly contrarian take this morning on ESPN’s Get Up.
“I’ll make a bold prediction. I think Aaron Rodgers is gonna be irrelevant by Thanksgiving,” Tannenbaum said. “A non-playoff team, a 42-year-old quarterback who’s a legend that’s going off into the sunset. They’re the third-best team in the division. They’re gonna have to find out about Will Howard, who they drafted from Ohio State, who I think is very intriguing. I don’t think they could really win this division. And I think by the end of this season, we’re gonna be talking about a massive transition.”
Analysts have been predicting the Steelers’ downfall for years now. Long streaks are made to be broken, and Mike Tomlin’s 18 years without a losing season is one of the most notable—and at times infamous—streaks in football.
While the Steelers likely do have an uphill battle to win the division this year with the Baltimore Ravens and Cincinnati Bengals around, let’s not act like the Steelers didn’t almost win the AFC North last year. Entering the final five weeks, the Steelers had a very high chance of securing the division title before their collapse. The collapse was the most recent memory of this team, so many are assuming that will carry over into 2025 and set a lower bar for the franchise.
It does need to be considered that Rodgers won just five games with the New York Jets last year. But the Steelers are not the Jets.
Going position by position, it’s hard to single out an area where the team got worse compared to 2024. Left tackle has the potential to be an issue if Broderick Jones can’t step up, but Dan Moore Jr. was no world beater, and Jones was starting on the right last year anyway. The receiving group is, at worst, roughly the same, but likely better than last year’s group. Kaleb Johnson has the potential to be a significant upgrade over Najee Harris, especially in Arthur Smith’s scheme.
On defense, the line had a massive infusion of talent with Derrick Harmon and Yahya Black in the draft on top of free agent Daniel Ekuale. The linebackers have more experience together and added Cole Holcomb back to the mix alongside FA addition Malik Harrison. The EDGE group is roughly the same with better depth. The secondary looks similar, but Beanie Bishop Jr. won’t be a rookie anymore and they added more depth and competition. Darius Slay is probably an upgrade over Donte Jackson even at his advanced age.
It’s hard to see a significant step back for the Steelers, and being irrelevant by November would be a gigantic step back. The Steelers have played exactly one meaningless game in Mike Tomlin’s tenure as the head coach and that came all the way back in 2012. Even with Duck Hodges and a young Mason Rudolph they managed to stay in the playoff race until the end.
The Steelers are likely due for some form of a transition next offseason as they look to draft a quarterback in the first round of the draft, but don’t expect Tomlin to be a part of that. He signed a three-year extension worth $50 million last offseason. The Steelers aren’t going to move on from that kind of money and break precedent by firing a coach in the middle of a contract.
Not to mention the hardest part of the Steelers’ schedule is from Thanksgiving and beyond. Something would have to go horribly wrong to be irrelevant by then.
