{"id":656343,"date":"2026-01-05T16:46:12","date_gmt":"2026-01-05T16:46:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/656343\/"},"modified":"2026-01-05T16:46:12","modified_gmt":"2026-01-05T16:46:12","slug":"steelers-given-brutal-ranking-on-super-bowl-contenders-list","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/656343\/","title":{"rendered":"Steelers Given Brutal Ranking On Super Bowl Contenders List"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Pittsburgh Steelers are riding high after winning the AFC North by virtue of a <a href=\"https:\/\/sportsnetpittsburgh.com\/2026\/01\/05\/steelers-outlast-ravens-win-afc-north-in-shocking-fashion\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Week 18 nail-biting victory<\/a> vs. the Baltimore Ravens on Sunday.<\/p>\n<p>Pittsburgh finished in first place in the division for the first time since the 2020 campaign but ended the regular season with a mediocre 10-7 record for the third straight year.<\/p>\n<p>After a 4-1 start to the season, the Steelers went 6-6 the rest of the way and NFL.com senior columnist Jeffri Chadiha isn\u2019t optimistic about quarterback Aaron Rodgers\u2019 chances of leading his team to the Super Bowl.<\/p>\n<p>Chadiha revealed his ranking of\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nfl.com\/news\/who-s-most-likely-to-win-super-bowl-lx-ranking-all-14-playoff-contenders\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">all 14 playoff contenders<\/a>\u00a0on Monday, placing Pittsburgh 13th on the list. The Steelers are only ranked ahead of the NFC South-champion Carolina Panthers.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Steelers have been leaning heavily on Rodgers over the past month, as Pittsburgh won four of its last five games with the 42-year-old quarterback playing some of his best football. Now we must see if Rodgers can do even more for the Steelers,\u201d he wrote. \u201cPittsburgh hasn\u2019t advanced past the Wild Card Round since the 2017 season. It has lost in the first round in each of the previous two seasons, and the challenge awaiting it next weekend \u2014 the Houston Texans \u2014 will be daunting. The last thing a team with an offense as middling as Pittsburgh possesses is a matchup with the league\u2019s best defense. To make matters worse, the Steelers defense has underwhelmed all year (and allowed a number of explosive pass plays to the Ravens on Sunday).\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"nesn-in-content-ad__copy\">Story continues below advertisement<\/p>\n<p>Chadiha added that it \u201ccan\u2019t be ignored\u201d that head coach Mike Tomlin\u2019s group has been \u201cerratic all season.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat\u2019s not likely to change now that they\u2019re playing for much higher stakes,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>No. 4 Pittsburgh hosts the fifth-seeded Houston Texans <a href=\"https:\/\/sportsnetpittsburgh.com\/2026\/01\/05\/steelers-historic-monday-night-streak-will-be-tested-in-wild-card-round\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">on Monday night<\/a> at Acisure Stadium in the final game of the Wild Card Round.<\/p>\n<p class=\"nesn-in-content-ad__copy\">Story continues below advertisement<\/p>\n<p>More NFL: <a href=\"https:\/\/sportsnetpittsburgh.com\/2026\/01\/05\/steelers-get-disrespectful-nfl-playoff-odds-ahead-of-wild-card-round\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Steelers Get Disrespectful NFL Playoff Odds Ahead Of Wild Card Round<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Pittsburgh Steelers are riding high after winning the AFC North by virtue of a Week 18 nail-biting&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":656344,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2055],"tags":[1586,7,1255,6,520,57,2360,426],"class_list":{"0":"post-656343","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-pittsburgh-steelers","8":"tag-aaron-rodgers","9":"tag-football","10":"tag-mike-tomlin","11":"tag-nfl","12":"tag-pittsburgh","13":"tag-pittsburgh-steelers","14":"tag-pittsburghsteelers","15":"tag-steelers"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115843510326818979","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/656343","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=656343"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/656343\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/656344"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=656343"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=656343"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=656343"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}