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Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin defied the doubters to stretch his record of never having a losing record to an incredible 16 seasons last year, but the strength of the AFC North and the conference as a whole means he has work to do to keep that going.
Pittsburgh went close to losing that record in 2019 with an 8-8 year, but it has been 9-7-1 and 9-8 in the last two years. Recovering from a 2-6 start to keep the streak alive in Kenny Pickett’s rookie season was astonishing and enough to claim 3rd place in a tough division but a finishing-position trend of 1-2-3… is going to be hard to arrest.
The Steelers are last in the odds for the AFC North, but that doesn’t mean they won’t be good enough to win games against teams from less competitive divisions. Let’s examine the odds and best bets to be made on the Pittsburgh Steelers this season.
Pittsburgh Steelers breakdown
2022 record: 9-8
2022 ATS record: 10-6-1
2022 O/U record: 7-10
Key players in: Isaac Seumalo (G), Cole Holcomb (LB), Patrick Peterson (CB), Nate Herbig (G), Elandon Roberts (LB), Keanu Neal (S)
Key players out: Cam Sutton (CB), Robert Spillane (LB), Devin Bush (LB), Terrell Edmunds (S), Myles Jack (LB), Benny Snell (RB)
2023 NFL Draft class: Broderick Jones (OT), Joey Porter Jr. (CB), Keeanu Benton (DT), Darnell Washington (TE), Nick Herbig (LB), Cory Trice (CB), Spencer Anderson (OT).
Pittsburgh Steelers 2023 NFL season odds
Odds provided by DraftKings Sportsbook.
Pittsburgh Steelers Super Bowl odds
The Steelers are in the lower half of the betting to win Super Bowl LVIII with odds of +5000. That puts them joint-18th of the 32 teams alongside the Chicago Bears.
Pittsburgh Steelers AFC Championship odds
Pittsburgh ranks joint-10th in the AFC betting with +3000 odds to make the Super Bowl alongside Denver, but there is a large gap above to 9th-placed Cleveland at +1800 odds.
Pittsburgh Steelers AFC North odds
The Steelers are 4th and last in the betting for the AFC North at +450 odds, behind the Browns (+380), Ravens (+235) and division favorites the Bengals (+150).
Pittsburgh Steelers win total odds
The oddsmakers expect the Steelers to be on the brink of a 0.500 record once more, with a regular-season win total of 8.5 games, with the over having -140 odds and the under coming in at +120. They are +600 to finish with exactly 8 wins and +550 for 9.
Pittsburgh Steelers 2023 schedule
Week 1: vs San Francisco 49ers
Week 2: vs Cleveland Browns (Monday)
Week 3: at Las Vegas Raiders
Week 4: at Houston Texans
Week 5: vs Baltimore Ravens
Week 6: BYE WEEK
Week 7: at Los Angeles Rams
Week 8: vs Jacksonville Jaguars
Week 9: vs Tennessee Titans (Thursday)
Week 10: vs Green Bay Packers
Week 11: at Cleveland Browns
Week 12: at Cincinnati Bengals
Week 13: vs Arizona Cardinals
Week 14: vs New England Patriots (Thursday)
Week 15: at Indianapolis Colts
Week 16: vs Cincinnati Bengals (Saturday)
Week 17: at Seattle Seahawks
Week 18: at Baltimore Ravens
Pittsburgh Steelers 2022 season recap
Some bye-week magic turned around the Steelers’ 2022 season as they went pretty much as expected at the start of Kenny Pickett’s rookie year, falling to 2-6 even after an unexpected Week 1 win over the Bengals in overtime. A 2-point victory over the Bucs was the only other success of the first half, but things were very different after the Week 9 bye. The Steelers went 7-2 to finish at a respectable 9-8, with the only second-half losses coming to division rivals the Bengals and Ravens. Tomlin’s team showed once more that they remain a tough out for anyone even if a rise to the heights of the Ben Roethlisberger era still seem some way off.
Pittsburgh Steelers 2023 NFL season predictions
The Steelers have a major advantage over many NFL teams in their coach, who will never send out a disorganised or unmotivated squad. Tomlin makes the best of what he has, but what he has does not arguably match up with the riches of his divisional and conference rivals. There is young talent that should develop, it’s just hard to see them keeping pace with the Bengals, Ravens and the potentially improving Browns.
Here are my Steelers-related predictions for the upcoming season.
Best bet: Pittsburgh Steelers not to make the playoffs (-155)
As we saw last season, the Steelers can keep Tomlin’s run of avoiding a sub .500 season going without making the playoffs, but even that might be a stretch this year. The positives for the team are their young offensive stars Najee Harris, George Pickens and Pat Freiermuth, and you can include Kenny Pickett to that list if he continues to improve. There have been significant losses elsewhere on the team, though, with 4 of the Steelers’ top 6 tacklers from last season (Myles Jack, Devin Bush, Robert Spillane and Terrell Edmunds) having departed, in addition to key cornerback Cam Sutton. Also, however much Pickett improves, there’s still likely to be a significant gap between him and the 3 other QBs in the division (Joe Burrow, Lamar Jackson and Deshaun Watson) if everyone is healthy. It’s all relative and the pack is stacked against the Steelers this time. It’s hard to see them even challenging for the playoffs, let alone making it.
Pittsburgh Steelers season record prediction: 7-10
For all the reasons above — and it’s mostly other teams being stronger rather than anything the Steelers are doing wrong themselves, that first losing season for Tomlin looks to be coming and it could be this season. A 7-10 record would only be a few bounces of the ball away from where they ended up last season and there just aren’t many easy home games on their schedule this year, it’s pretty much just the Cardinals game that looks a solid W chance, with the 49ers, Jaguars, Packers, Titans and Patriots also coming to town in addition to their division rivals.