{"id":29364,"date":"2025-05-06T21:36:09","date_gmt":"2025-05-06T21:36:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/29364\/"},"modified":"2025-05-06T21:36:09","modified_gmt":"2025-05-06T21:36:09","slug":"not-beating-ravens-or-bengals-even-if-aaron-rodgers-signs-colin-cowherd-picks-steelers-3rd-in-afc-north","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/29364\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Not Beating Ravens Or Bengals’: Even If Aaron Rodgers Signs, Colin Cowherd Picks Steelers 3rd In AFC North"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Pittsburgh Steelers are still waiting on a decision<\/a> from quarterback Aaron Rodgers, one they hope ends in him signing with the Black and Gold.<\/p>\n

Though he\u2019s 41 years old and near the end of his career, Rodgers still has some juice left in his right arm<\/a>, which could fit well into offensive coordinator Arthur Smith\u2019s scheme in the Steel City.<\/p>\n

Despite the belief that Rodgers is going to choose the Steelers, and the notion that he fits well into their offensive scheme, FS1\u2019s Colin Cowherd doesn\u2019t believe they\u2019ll be better than the Baltimore Ravens or the Cincinnati Bengals in 2025.<\/p>\n

Tuesday on \u201cThe Herd,\u201d Cowherd stated that even with Rodgers, Pittsburgh is third-best in the AFC North and isn\u2019t a playoff team.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven if Aaron Rodgers shows up, they\u2019re not beating the Ravens or Bengals,\u201d Cowherd said while giving a rundown of his early-May AFC North standings projections.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

Of course, Rodgers can\u2019t be viewed as a savior \u2013 nor should he be. He\u2019s coming off of a 2024 season in which he started off very poorly, saw his head coach and GM get fired, and then played well down the stretch, ultimately throwing for 3,897 yards, 28 touchdowns and 11 interceptions.<\/p>\n

Those are decent numbers, but Rodgers came on strong late when the season was already over for the Jets and they were just playing out the string.<\/p>\n

In Pittsburgh though, should Rodgers sign, he\u2019ll be stepping into a very stable organization with two good wide receivers to work with in DK Metcalf<\/a> and George Pickens, not to mention a good tight end in Pat Freiermuth and a team that should be able to run the football with rookie Kaleb Johnson and veterans Jaylen Warren and Kenneth Gainwell.<\/p>\n

Couple that with a good defense that should be better in 2025 with big additions in rookie defensive lineman Derrick Harmon, cornerback Darius Slay and depth additions in cornerback Brandin Echols, defensive lineman Daniel Ekuale and safety Juan Thornhill, and Pittsburgh should be in good shape to compete within the division.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

Granted, the Steelers lost to the Ravens twice late last season \u2014 including in blowout fashion in the AFC Wild Card Round and did lose to the Bengals to close the regular season. But historically, Pittsburgh plays quite well against them. Over the last five years, Pittsburgh is 8-2 in the regular season against the Ravens and 5-5 in the regular season against the Bengals.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s some success there, particularly against the Ravens and Lamar Jackson, outside of the Wild Card Round loss, which for many is all that matters.<\/p>\n

But right now, in early May, to say Pittsburgh can\u2019t beat Baltimore and Cincinnati and will finish third in the AFC North? That seems like a significant stretch, doesn\u2019t take recent history within the division into account, and overlooks all the upgrades the Steelers have made this season.<\/p>\n

So, par for the course for Cowherd.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Pittsburgh Steelers are still waiting on a decision from quarterback Aaron Rodgers, one they hope ends in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":29365,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2052],"tags":[1586,1990,184,117,2282,256,6405,7,1577,895,6,57,169,8833],"class_list":{"0":"post-29364","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-baltimore-ravens","8":"tag-aaron-rodgers","9":"tag-afc-north","10":"tag-baltimore","11":"tag-baltimore-ravens","12":"tag-baltimoreravens","13":"tag-cincinnati-bengals","14":"tag-colin-cowherd","15":"tag-football","16":"tag-joe-burrow","17":"tag-lamar-jackson","18":"tag-nfl","19":"tag-pittsburgh-steelers","20":"tag-ravens","21":"tag-the-herd"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/114463046791693024","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29364","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=29364"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29364\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29365"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29364"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29364"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29364"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}