Steelers Finally Super Bowl Contenders

Steelers Finally Super Bowl Contenders

Have your expectations has your outlook on this season on where the Pittsburgh Steelers might end up at the end of all this changed at all with a ton of turnover in the last honestly the last two months but the last three three and a half months. Yes. Yes. It is it has drastically changed the expectations and outlook that I have on the Pittsburgh Steelers season. I think before all of this craziness started, all of the changes, the roster overhaul began, I saw this as just basically a replica season of the last few years, we were going to finish, you know, nine and eight or some variation of just having a winning season, sneaking into the the postseason, losing wild card weekend, and everyone coming back here next summer scratching their heads being like, why do they keep doing this?
Yes. Now I think that my expectations have changed to completely boom or bust. I think that this team is either going to I like that
the expectation has to be at least the AFC Championship game or this is like a five- win team again because this either has to go so spectacularly well or has to fail in such a similarly spectacular fashion uh based off of how crazy not your grandpa’s not your grandparents Steelers off season this has been. So I think that my expectations have changed drastically. I’m I’m expecting them to either make a legitimate run in the postseason or I am expecting this to just blow up in their faces so awfully that this becomes a um you know a miserable season that forces the Steelers to totally readjust and make some serious changes. So yeah, expectations have drastically shifted from middling to big things ahead. Is it worse or better to be a team to have the expectations of boom or bust compared to playoff team? Maybe there’s a shot, but you’re not like you’re not real into the shot. You’re not really feeling like this team could go on a run. I think, you know, from a fans perspective, I would say it’s probably more fun of a ride to think that this team has Super Bowl potential, but you know, in the back of your head, this could go really terribly wrong. I think that is probably more fun than the the limbo or like the purgatory, the sort of like stuck feeling that just being an average borderline playoff team brings for a few years. Um, so yeah. So I think that it is better. I don’t think it’s worse. Yes, it could go worse if this all goes terribly wrong and if nothing goes according to plan, then you’re like, okay, yeah, but I think you have to accept the potential and accept the possibility of that happening. Um, because there has just been such a dramatic change for the Pittsburgh Steelers heading into the 2025 season. But personally and from a fans perspective personally, I think it is better because I for the first time in several years believe that this team can make a longer run in the postseason. So yeah, I’ll take that over just being like, well, we’ll sneak into the playoffs again, lose to whoever we we go to in the in that wild card weekend and then just keep doing the same thing again in 2026. So yeah, I think it’s better.
I like that. I I agree with you. I do think it’s better. I I think boom or bust gives you at least the possibility of boom and the Steelers haven’t had boom in quite some time. It’s been a while since you’ve looked at the Pittsburgh Steelers roster and said there are, you know, in years past it was Kenny Pickicket’s here, maybe the Super Bowl windows open, maybe the Steelers have enough, but like you looked at it and said Kenny Pickicket’s got to be incredible. The offensive line’s got to be way better than they’ve been and they weren’t. There are holes on defense. I don’t know how I feel about the holes on defense, but you you somewhat made excuses for for how things were going to go. Russ shows up and you go, Russell Wilson, man, I mean, this guy’s done it before. Maybe it’s great, but you kind of looked at it and said, “Nah, hasn’t been great in a while.” And a while as in like five plus years since Russ has been like the guy anywhere. Aaron shows up and you’re going, “All right, it’s Aaron Rogers. That’s interesting. That’s exciting.” But you also at the the back of your head going, Aaron’s not gonna Aaron’s not winning you a Super Bowl. Aaron isn’t the guy that’s coming in here to be the savior of the Pittsburgh Steelers. He’s just coming in here to be a good quarterback, which I think in the grand scheme of things is what the Steelers need right now. But it wasn’t enough to, you know, you had to either lie to yourself again because again it’s been five plus years of lying of just like ah but Ben’s here and there’s a great defense. Yeah. But Trey Turner and Kendrick Green and Kevin Dodson are leading the way in the offensive line and Ben’s going to get killed and you could try to ignore it all you want, but you can’t. With Aaron, it’s you’re lying to yourself if you’re saying Aaron’s going to be the reason that the Steelers win a Super Bowl. But you might not be lying to yourself if you say the defense is better, the receiving game has a big name, and hopefully Roman Wilson’s good, and you have at least Johnny Smith and Pat Frymute to to look at and say you’re not it’s not a it’s it’s not a superstar group of receiving options, but it’s definitely an upgrade from last season. The running game’s better. The offensive line is finally put together. the coaching staff is I mean because again you were looking at it going Ben better be the guy because Matt Canada ain’t and what’s going to happen there. This is the first time where in the boom and bust conversation you don’t really have to lie to yourself like boom or bust is a real outcome for the Pittsburgh Steelers. And I agree I think that’s a better place to be than trying to talk yourself into bigger things when bigger things aren’t realistically going to happen. Where here I think it’s a 50-50 split. Either this goes terribly wrong and the Steelers look awful or it looks great and the Steelers look great and they’ve done some moves and Omar Khan’s worth every single second or cent of his three-year contract extension. I like the outcome of this and I think to me the Pittsburgh Steelers have that’s the they’re not stale. You know, this is not a stale football team for the first time in a long time and that’s that’s exciting. That’s exciting. If you’re going to change expectations, that’s the way to do it is to make yourself not stale. Um,
yes.
And I think the outcome to that is, again, we have no idea, but it’s definitely better. You know, it’s defin Especially for you. You you’ve been here and you’ve said this, you said a number of times, the Steelers are not a Super Bowl team. The Steelers are not a Super Bowl team. To to at least have the I mean, anything can happen thought in the back of your head. That wasn’t there a couple of days ago. That wasn’t there. No,
a couple of months ago. It’s there now. It’s definitely there now. Truly. Truly. Yeah. It was never there for a moment in 2024. It was never there from January of 2025 until, you know, uh the moment Aaron Rogers signed and now it it certainly is percolating that idea. Uh I’d like to see more happen. and training camp’s going to be very very pivotal to sort of where I think this team can go and sort of what I think the ceiling of 2025 will be. But yeah, I mean the just the the excitement and optimism of just like being a a somewhat more legitimate team is miles better than what they were doing last year. And and might I pose that like as we’re talking about this, the kind of idea of this going terribly wrong
Yeah. doesn’t sound like the worst outcome to me either. No, if if it guarantees, as we’ve kind of talked about and mentioned before, if it guarantees that you get that top five, top 10 pick, then
Yep. you know,
uh, there are worse things. Not the worst. Exactly. There are worse things.
Yeah, I agree. If if the Steelers, if it is bust, all right, well, we’ll see what happens. But I agree with you. I I feel a lot better sitting here today. Not about the outcome, just about the possibilities of the 2025 season. And that’s exciting, dude. That’s the Steelers are an exciting football team where we sit today. It is it’s it’s it’s cool. It’s definitely much cooler than years past. All right, let’s pivot the other question. Second question here on this 4th of July, which I got to say, dude, Marlon Lewis coming up with a banger as we Oh, two two grit iron gains also. I apologize, Marlin in the comments early. Should have been a Ben Rothosberger with a Ben Franklin wig on. I’m going to be honest. If if anything’s ever going to replace the Ben Dranken, it’s the Ben Dranken with Ben Rothosberger. That’s uh It’s a good one. That’s a good one. Grid Iron here with the the biggest reminder of today. Okay. Good morning, guys. Happy 4th. be responsible and safe and throw it in rever. It’s the first thing I watched today. It’s the fir there are two there are two traditions in the Strabine household that I and I have now forced my wife to become part of
it’s the throw it in reverse Terry video which starts every morning. I watched that thing at 5:35 this morning. That’s when I turned that video on this morning. And two is the hot dog eating contest which starts at at noon I believe. And uh
are you a hot dog eating contest guy?
Dude, I can’t watch that. It makes me sick. Makes me nauseous.
It is. It does. It makes you feel like you’re going to throw out the whole time. The whole It is. There’s nothing that’s more brutal for your stomach than watching this. I It’s my favorite sporting event of the year. Like it is I am so fired up for it. I I’m very excited for you and I and I I don’t mean to uh to poo poo your excitement at all. It’s just when I watch it um it makes me feel ill, so I can’t do it. But I like to I like to hear the number of hot dogs consumed by the winner each year because I’m always just like,
“Okay, how many months would it take me of just like normally eating hot dogs like a normal human might?” Like a normal human. Do do you watch the uh so I go do you watch the lemonade chugging contest afterwards?
I go
Dude, you’re you’re locked in. Is this all on ESPN 8 at the Oojo?
It’s it’s just on regular ESPN. I think maybe ESPN 2. Then it’s the cornhole tournament. I’m an all day fourth of July sports guy. I’m an allhole tournament.
It doesn’t leave me. Um and then from there it’ll go it’ll go Yankees Mets because that’s just a good game. But Joey Chestnut is, if you ask me who’s my favorite sports player of all time, sports figure I have. It is, it goes, it goes LeBron James, which is tough because LeBron James is losing it. He’s kind of getting soft in his old age, and then it’s Joey Chestnut, and there are there is a significant gap between number three. There’s a significant Allen Iverson is up there as as a number three, but like again, dude, Joey Chestnut might climb his way into the fourth. A shout out to everybody who suffers through it. I make my wife suffer through it. She wants to throw up the whole time, but it’s a good time.

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