It could be an uphill battle for the Pittsburgh Steelers to make the playoffs in 2025, however The thirty third Crew’s Sam Monson thinks there are two components that might work in Pittsburgh’s favor in its pursuit of a 3rd straight playoff look.
“Primary, I do assume that Mike Tomlin is a very good coach, who the crew follows him. They wish to go and win for him. Quantity two, that protection may very well be nasty. You have a look at that group, it may very well be an elite, genuinely, it may very well be a kind of suffocating defenses,” Monson mentioned on a latest episode of Test The Mic with co-host Steve Palazzolo. “They may have a kind of defenses that’s adequate to maintain them in each single sport.”
Palazzolo in the end doesn’t assume the Steelers will likely be adequate to have a profitable file, however Monson no less than thinks there’s an opportunity. Whereas the Steelers have struggled to win within the playoffs underneath Tomlin, he’s been adequate to guide the Steelers to no less than a .500 file in each season as a head coach, even after they’ve had much less expertise than they need to this yr.
Tomlin can definitely elevate Pittsburgh’s flooring, however the protection enjoying like an elite unit would be the key to taking the Steelers to the subsequent stage. Once they had been at their greatest in 2024, it was because of the protection having the ability to get after the quarterback and power turnovers and holding the opposing offense from scoring. However the protection fell aside a bit within the second half of the season, because the secondary was rife with communication points and the go rush didn’t get residence as persistently.
Pittsburgh made some notable additions on the defensive facet of the ball, signing CBs Darius Slay and Brandin Echols whereas drafting DL Derrick Harmon, and the hope is that the protection can persistently play like among the best models in soccer. If it could play the way in which it did for the primary 10 video games in 2024 all season, then the Steelers needs to be adequate to make the postseason. Monson believes that if the crew indicators QB Aaron Rodgers and the protection will be pretty much as good as its expertise stage, that will be an enormous distinction for the Steelers as they give the impression of being to make the playoffs, as Rodgers would then are available and have the ability to do sufficient to assist the Steelers win video games.
The consistency of Pittsburgh’s protection goes to be a significant factor of their success this season, but when the unit will be elite, then the Steelers ought to discover themselves enjoying significant soccer into January for the third yr in a row.
