{"id":941316,"date":"2026-07-10T00:18:34","date_gmt":"2026-07-10T00:18:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/941316\/"},"modified":"2026-07-10T00:18:34","modified_gmt":"2026-07-10T00:18:34","slug":"they-are-a-9-8-team-panthers-long-snapper-calls-steelers-uninteresting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/941316\/","title":{"rendered":"‘They Are A 9-8 Team’: Panthers Long Snapper Calls Steelers ‘Uninteresting’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Pittsburgh Steelers fans were left frustrated once again with how the 2025 season ended for their favorite team. While the Steelers won their division, they once again failed to win a playoff game. It was more of the same, reinforcing the narrative that the Steelers are stuck in a cycle of mediocrity.<\/a> Many people blamed Mike Tomlin for the team staying stuck in neutral, but he\u2019s gone, with Mike McCarthy stepping in as Pittsburgh\u2019s new head coach. However, Carolina Panthers long snapper J.J. Jansen still sees more of the same coming for the Steelers this season.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey will be fine,\u201d Jansen said recently on the NFL Daily podcast.<\/a> \u201cI was in Green Bay when Aaron [Rodgers] was a starter for the first time with Mike McCarthy. It\u2019s going to be a fine working relationship\u2026I thought Aaron played okay last year. You\u2019re not paying Aaron $45, $50 million dollars.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just don\u2019t know that the team\u2019s all that interesting, especially when you consider that division\u2019s also got the Bengals and the Ravens\u2026I still feel like they are a 9-8 team. They\u2019re going to beat some teams that they shouldn\u2019t and they\u2019re going to lose some games that they shouldn\u2019t. I would certainly trust the ball in Aaron\u2019s hand in the fourth quarter, but it\u2019s just an uninteresting 9-8, 10-7, 7-10 kind of team for me.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Steelers don\u2019t have the star power that other AFC North teams do, especially under center. Rodgers is one of the best to ever do it, but he\u2019s 42 years old. While he\u2019s got some gas left in the tank, he\u2019s not on the same level as Lamar Jackson and Joe Burrow. Both are among the NFL\u2019s best quarterbacks.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s easy to see why some might write off the Steelers in favor of the Bengals or Ravens. However, Pittsburgh has shown that it shouldn\u2019t be underestimated. Having a superstar quarterback doesn\u2019t automatically make a team good.<\/a><\/p>\n

That was evident last year. The Steelers won the AFC North, while injuries and other issues plagued the Ravens and Bengals.<\/p>\n

Perhaps Jansen\u2019s analysis of the Steelers would feel truer if Tomlin was still their head coach. However, say what you want about the Steelers, but they don\u2019t look uninteresting. They have a new head coach for the first time in almost 20 years. There have been more popes since 1970 than there have been Steelers head coaches.<\/p>\n

That alone makes Pittsburgh at least a little interesting in 2026, and the team has other intriguing storylines, too. That includes Rodgers saying this will be his final season. He\u2019s not the same player that he once was, but he\u2019s still a legend. Also, he and McCarthy reuniting adds another layer to the four-time NFL MVP\u2019s retirement tour.<\/p>\n

The Steelers play Jansen\u2019s Panthers in Week 16 this year, so they\u2019ll have a chance to prove him wrong. That\u2019s still far away, so a lot can happen between now and then, but the Steelers improved their roster this offseason. Couple that with their new coaching staff<\/a> and they could break through the ceiling that they\u2019ve been stuck under for years.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Pittsburgh Steelers fans were left frustrated once again with how the 2025 season ended for their favorite team.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":929865,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2075],"tags":[235,260,2567,7,10416,6,23060,236,57],"class_list":["post-941316","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-carolina-panthers","tag-carolina","tag-carolina-panthers","tag-carolinapanthers","tag-football","tag-j-j-jansen","tag-nfl","tag-nfl-daily","tag-panthers","tag-pittsburgh-steelers"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116892814800433960","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/941316","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=941316"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/941316\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/929865"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=941316"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=941316"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=941316"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}