When the Pittsburgh Steelers are in the dreaded long offseason, there are plenty of ideas to debate. As part of the triumphant trio on the Steelers Preview podcast, I’ve been known to often give a “Dave answer“ to various things as I often like to argue both sides of an issue. With this in mind, a new weekly segment was born… Unpopular Opinion.

There are plenty of arguments both for and against the Pittsburgh Steelers that might not go along with the narratives floating around. Oftentimes I believe in these arguments, while other times I simply like to pose a counter argument for ones that are taking it too much to the extreme. For this reason, I’m going to offer some points about the Pittsburgh Steelers that go against the general fan narrative, or at least how I have heard things.

Next up is an opinion that many probably agree with, but it’s unpopular because they don’t like it…

Steelers fans look to the ceiling while ownership is focused on the floor⁠

This is a bit of a different topic this week, as I outlined above, because I don’t think the statement itself goes against what most fans are thinking. This is an unpopular statement just because fans don’t like it. And neither do I.

When the Steelers went to hire a new head coach, a lot of fans were disappointed with the direction they went. It felt like the Steelers were more about “maintaining the status quo” then “getting over the hump.” The Steelers have been a team that is always contending for the postseason. The problem is, they haven’t been contending IN the postseason.

The ceiling that the fans are looking for is a deep playoff run, hopefully with hoisting a Lombardi trophy at the end of it. That’s a pretty good ceiling. But the Steelers have just been hanging around the floor for way too long.

What is the floor of the Pittsburgh Steelers? For the last 20+ years, it’s been as the highest floor of any franchise as a team that is never below .500 and rarely plays a game in which they are eliminated from postseason contention. They are relevant throughout the season.

But is relevancy in the regular season the goal, or relevancy deep in the postseason?

In the words of Art Rooney II, the Steelers aren’t interested in having a rebuild season where they’re not in contention. Honestly, I don’t have a huge problem with that. I don’t think a team has to take a step backwards in order to take a step forward. I don’t buy into the idea of that one losing season gives the right draft pick to get just the right player to then go win a championship. Yes, it is possible and the Steelers have seen it before, but it is the exception and not the rule. In fact, many NFL teams, like the Browns and Jets, are constantly losing and constantly drafting high and still aren’t anywhere close to a Super Bowl. So Steelers fans expect the Steelers to have one bad season and suddenly be the best team in the NFL? The odds are not in their favor.

In other words, it’s not that the Steelers need to lower the floor in order to reach the ceiling. But the structure of everything going on with how the Steelers are continuing into 2026, mainly how they approached the head coach and quarterback position, feels like being on the floor is where the Steelers are comfortable. Instead of getting that push to take everything to the next level, it’s more a fear of losing ground of where they are than the hope of building something higher. That seems to be what drives AR2.

I could be totally wrong. The Steelers could come out and go on a tremendous run in 2026. I would love nothing more than that to happen and I would enjoy the ride so much. But it just seems like the Steelers are so scared of the floor dropping they’re not willing to take a leap towards the ceiling.

To hear the latest Unpopular Opinion podcast, check it out in the player below. Thank you for checking out this podcast most every Sunday morning during the Steelers offseason.