{"id":113781,"date":"2025-06-08T14:13:14","date_gmt":"2025-06-08T14:13:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/113781\/"},"modified":"2025-06-08T14:13:14","modified_gmt":"2025-06-08T14:13:14","slug":"mcfadden-argues-steelers-are-closer-to-super-bowl-than-bengals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/113781\/","title":{"rendered":"McFadden Argues Steelers Are Closer To Super Bowl Than Bengals"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Pittsburgh Steelers have been searching for their elusive seventh Super Bowl victory for quite some time now. While the Steelers aren\u2019t exactly knocking on the door of a Super Bowl this year, former Steeler Bryant McFadden does believe they\u2019re closer than one of their division rivals, the Cincinnati Bengals.<\/p>\n

Speaking on 93.7 The Fan<\/a> on Friday, host Andrew Fillipponi asked McFadden if he believed Pittsburgh was closer to that threshold than Cincinnati.<\/p>\n

\u201cYes,\u201d McFadden replied. \u201cOkay, hear me out\u2026 Who has a better record out of Zac Taylor and Mike Tomlin, since Zac Taylor has been the head coach?\u2026 When it comes to coaching, we [Steelers] have a better coaching staff than Cincinnati. We have a better defense than Cincinnati. We have a better special-teams unit than Cincinnati. The only thing Cincinnati has better is offense, that\u2019s it.\u201d<\/p>\n

To be clear, McFadden doesn\u2019t necessarily think the Steelers are destined for the Super Bowl this year. He said as much on CBS Sports HQ on Thursday<\/a>, reacting to Rodgers agreeing to sign.<\/p>\n

However, many still aren\u2019t giving the Steelers a ton of credit, despite improving their quarterback room with Rodgers. Some expect them to finish third<\/a> in the division regardless of their quarterback. It\u2019s less of an argument to take the Ravens over the Steelers, but McFadden does make some good points here.<\/p>\n

The Bengals do a few things better than the Steelers, and they\u2019re all on the offensive side of the ball. Joe Burrow has cemented himself as one of the best quarterbacks in the game, and the Steelers might not match up with Cincinnati at that position for years to come. They also have two terrific receivers in Ja\u2019Marr Chase and Tee Higgins, who both are now under long-term deals.<\/p>\n

With that said, there isn\u2019t really another aspect that gives the Bengals a better chance than the Steelers of winning a Super Bowl.<\/p>\n

The Steelers are significantly better on defense. That was a major weakness for the Bengals last year, and it\u2019s the reason they fell short in their chase of the playoffs. Under Danny Smith, the Steelers have consistently had quality special teams throughout the years. And while Zac Taylor has overseen a few winning seasons with the Bengals, he doesn\u2019t match up to Mike Tomlin.<\/p>\n

All things considered, this isn\u2019t really a controversial opinion. The Steelers lost four straight games to end their regular season last year, including a loss to the Bengals at home in the last game of the season. And yet, even with that 10-7 record, they finished ahead of Cincinnati.<\/p>\n

Even with Rodgers, the Steelers didn\u2019t take a big step forward this offseason. However, they should have better quarterback play, and there isn\u2019t a part of the roster that got significantly worse. The Steelers likely won\u2019t be contending for a Super Bowl this year. However, they\u2019ve got an argument over the Bengals.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Pittsburgh Steelers have been searching for their elusive seventh Super Bowl victory for quite some time now.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":113782,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2053],"tags":[8740,11566,228,19009,227,256,2296,7,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-113781","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cincinnati-bengals","8":"tag-93-7-the-fan","9":"tag-andrew-fillipponi","10":"tag-bengals","11":"tag-bryant-mcfadden","12":"tag-cincinnati","13":"tag-cincinnati-bengals","14":"tag-cincinnatibengals","15":"tag-football","16":"tag-nfl"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/114648161283286386","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113781","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=113781"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113781\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/113782"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=113781"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=113781"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=113781"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}