Five Biggest Reasons the 2025 Steelers are Struggling

Steelers Commentary

Pittsburgh Steelers defensive coordinator Teryl Austin and head coach Mike Tomlin on Nov. 23, 2025. — Ed Thompson / Steelers Now

Plenty has gone wrong for the Pittsburgh Steelers over the first 12 weeks of the 2025 season, and even though the Steelers were gift-wrapped a golden opportunity to lock down the AFC North after injuries to Joe Burrow and Lamar Jackson, they’ve been unable to do so, falling into a first-place tie with the Ravens after Sunday’s loss to the Chicago Bears, and facing the toughest part of their schedule still to come.

The Steelers were not expected to be a strong contender coming into the season, so it should not come as a huge surprise that they’re 6-5 entering the stretch run of the season.

But the way the Steelers have gotten here has not been the expected path, or the team’s plan and vision for the 2025 season. Not long ago, they were favorites to win the AFC North with a three-game lead.

Plenty has gone wrong, given the circumstances, which has ended up costing the Steelers what could have been an iron grip on the AFC North. What have those things been? I’ve picked five of the biggest offenders.

THE OBVIOUS PROBLEMS ON OFFENSE HAVE BEEN OBVIOUS PROBLEMS

Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver Roman Wilson in a game against the Cincinnati Bengals on Oct. 17, 2205. — Ed Thompson / Steelers Now

The Pittsburgh Steelers came into the 2025 season with a whole set of problems with the team’s offense that were obvious to just about anyone.

They have a 41-year-old starting quarterback, in Aaron Rodgers, who was not particularly good in his last two healthy seasons, and was injured for all of one of the last three.

Rodgers has actually played better this season in Pittsburgh than his 2024 season with the New York Jets and 2022 season with the Green Bay Packers, but anyone hoping for a return to MVP form was always fooling themselves. This is about the best version of Rodgers anyone could have expected to get, and the fact that he’s missed three halves of football over 12 weeks should not be particularly surprising, either, nor should the fact that the Steelers lost the first full game he missed.

The Steelers have also had an obvious dearth of talent at the wide receiver position, going back two seasons now, that has played out the way anyone should have expected it to: DK Metcalf faces a ton of double coverage, and the combination of Calvin Austin III and Roman Wilson has yet to make anyone pay for adopting that strategy.

Pittsburgh Steelers offensive coordinator Arthur Smith during the team’s first OTAs practice on May 27, 2025. — Ed Thompson / Steelers Now

The offensive line came into the season with two players with one season of starting experience at their current position, and two — both tackles — with none.

An old quarterback, a young offensive line, and a lack of wide receivers is not a way to build a championship-caliber offense. That was obvious all offseason, and that unit’s inability to deliver championship-caliber football should come as no surprise.

In fact, the Steelers offense has played far ahead of realistic expectations, with that unit currently 11th in scoring offense. It’s why the over/under on the Steelers vs. Bills game is only 47.

That’s about as good as this unit could possibly have been expected to be, but it still hasn’t been good enough to get the Steelers where they want to go as a team.

TERYL AUSTIN IS NOT PUSHING THE RIGHT BUTTONS FAST ENOUGH

Pittsburgh Steelers defensive coordinator Teryl Austin in a game against the Indianapolis Colts on Nov. 4, 2025. — Ed Thompson / Steelers Now

The Pittsburgh defense, the highest-paid in the NFL this season, has been one of the worst. The Steelers are currently 20th in scoring defense and they’re even worse in yards allowed. That despite a unit chocked full of talented players at key positions — more on them in a bit.

The defensive coaching staff has tried many, many different permutations of coverages, personnel groupings and schemes over the course of the season. Sometimes, they’ve found some answers that work, in particular against the Indianapolis Colts, who tied a season low in scoring against the Steelers in Week 9. In a three-week span from Week 9 to Week 11, the Steelers allowed 57 points. That’s not record-breaking stuff, but it would be good enough for seventh in the league on a full-season basis.

Then the Chicago Bears came in with a deeply mediocre offense and eviscerated them, scoring 31 points in Sunday’s loss. 

The good three-week stretch came on the heels of back-to-back disasters, with the Steelers allowing 33 points to the Cincinnati Bengals in Week 7 — the only game the Bengals won with Joe Flacco while Joe Burrow was out — and the 35 the following week against the Green Bay Packers.

Austin tried plenty of different adjustments during and after that Bengals game, but it took two weeks to find the right ones and implement them against the Colts. Coming off three straight solid performances, the Steelers didn’t have an answer for what the Bears were doing on Sunday, and again never came up with an answer in-game.

They very well might figure that out this week, but it can’t take that long for the team to diagnose and fix schematic problems on a defense this talented. While Arthur Smith has done more with less, Austin has done less with more.

T.J. WATT HAS NOT LIVED UP TO HIS CONTRACT — AND NEITHER HAS ANYONE ELSE

Pittsburgh Steelers edge rusher T.J. Watt in a game against the Chicago Bears on Nov. 23, 2026. — Ed Thompson / Steelers Now

The Steelers signed T.J. Watt to a three-year, $123 million contract extension this offseason, making him the highest-paid edge rusher in the NFL and the highest-paid non-quarterback in league history before Micah Parsons’ new deal came in and eclipsed his.

Watt notably signed for $1 million per year more than Cleveland Browns defensive end Myles Garrett, who came into the league the same year as Watt. The two have been comparable players for most of their careers, with Watt holding the statistical advantage, but only slightly, entering 2025.

Watt had his seventh sack of the season on Sunday. Garrett has had seven in the last two weeks. He has 18 on the year, and looks like he’ll be a shoe-in to break Watt’s single-season sack record.

Parsons has 10. Aidan Hutchinson has 8.5. Danielle Hunter has 11. Those are the top five highest-paid edge rushers, and Watt is having the worst season of that group.

Pittsburgh Steelers outside linebacker Alex Highsmith at practice on Oct. 14, 2025. — Ed Thompson / Steelers Now

While Austin can be blamed for lots of the problems with the Steelers defense, Watt’s job hasn’t changed much. He’s asked to beat the blocker in front of him. With Alex Highsmith and Nick Herbig manning the opposite side, the Steelers should have the horses to make teams pay for paying too much attention to Watt, but that hasn’t played out successfully, either. 

Highsmith has missed four games with two injuries. Herbig has been hot and cold. He managed just one pressure against the Bears’ third-string left tackle on Sunday.

The problem isn’t just Watt. Most of the team’s highest-paid players aren’t performing up to snuff. Highsmith is the team’s fourth-highest paid defender. He has 5.5 sacks. Cam Heyward, making $22.8 million, has one.

Jalen Ramsey, the team’s third-highest paid defender, has one interception and hasn’t even been playing the position he was acquired to play.

THE MINKAH FITZPATRICK TRADE HAS BEEN A FAILURE

Pittsburgh Steelers cornerback Jalen Ramsey gets ready for a play during his team’s 23-9 win over the Cleveland Browns on Sunday. Ed Thompson/Steelers Now

The Steelers traded Minkah Fitzpatrick and totally revamped their secondary this offseason. 

They went from the 2024 lineup:

CB Joey Porter Jr.
CB Donte Jackson
NB Beanie Bishop/Cam Sutton
FS Minkah Fitzpatrick
SS DeShon Elliott

To this at the start of the 2025 season:

CB Joey Porter Jr.
CB Darius Slay
NB Jalen Ramsey
FS Juan Thornhill
SS DeShon Elliott

The idea was that Fitzpatrick’s playmaking ability was being wasted by continually having him so far off the ball, and that by having Ramsey play in the slot, the Steelers could address a longstanding weakness of the defense, while also using a player versatile enough to also play two other spots.

Pittsburgh Steelers safety Minkah Fitzpatrick at minicamp on June 11, 2025. — Ed Thompson / Steelers Now

That plan failed spectacularly. Thornhill was consistently out of position as the team’s free safety. Slay was abused as an outside cornerback, and Ramsey only did marginally better there before being permanently moved to free safety. When Slay got hurt, it was veteran special teamer James Pierre inserted into the lineup — and looking like an upgrade.

On Sunday, the Steelers lined up like this, with only one player in the same spot as Week 1:

CB Joey Porter Jr.
CB James Pierre
NB Brandin Echols
FS Jalen Ramsey
SS Kyle Dugger

The fact that they’ve found some answers after their first missteps is somewhat commendable, even if it’s taken too long. 

But the cold hard truth is that the secondary the Steelers assembled on paper this offseason, the secondary that Mike Tomlin sought out to get, was a total failure.

That, combined with the fact that Jonnu Smith has been a mostly unused piece on the offense, makes the whole Fitzpatrick trade look like a folly right now. 

The Steelers traded an All-Pro safety to get an All-Pro cornerback and move him to safety.

STEELERS PROBLEMS EVEN BIGGER YET?

Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin during a game against the Indianapolis Colts on Nov. 2, 2025 — Ed Thompson / Steelers Now

The Steelers are built to win on defense, first and foremost. They spend the most on defense. Even when spending a lot, they use top-flight draft capital on defense. That method has led to a top 10 defensive unit the last three seasons and competitive seasons, despite middling or worse offenses.

This year, it has come crashing down on itself.  The Steelers’ highest-paid unit is 20th in scoring. The offense is playing well enough for the Steelers to be the best team in the AFC North. Instead, they’re going to have to sweat out a late-season gauntlet to just make the playoffs.

The above problems listed are specific. But there also might be a general problem here, as well. Can the theory of a team succeeding with defense first still hold muster? 

Maybe Austin has just been that bad, and a different, better defensive coordinator would produce more results. Maybe players like Watt, Heyward and Slay just got old at the same time. Maybe Fitzpatrick was a much bigger part of the team’s success than anyone recognized.

Pittsburgh Steelers president Art Rooney II speaks at the 2026 NFL Draft clock reveal on May 12, 2025 — Ed Thompson / Steelers Now

And if that’s all that’s wrong — that’s still a lot. But those things are fixable within the team’s usual method of doing business. They can replace Austin. They can cut ties with most of their older players without much penalty (they might be stuck with Watt). They can find another All-Pro safety — and they may have in Ramsey, even if that was not their intention.

But if the theory of being a defense-first team is no longer tenable, then that might require some more serious soul-searching than we’ve seen them be capable of so far.

It might require Tomlin and Art Rooney II to admit that the entire theory of the team they’ve being trying to build has been wrong, and no one knows if they’re capable of that. That might be the scariest outcome yet.

Mentioned In This Article: Mike Tomlin Pittsburgh Steelers Steeleers Teryl Austin top