So anyone feeling any different about the Steelers after pre-season, or everyone feel pretty much the same as when it started?
Barring major injury I think the team projects to be improved in some key areas. On the whole I think the OL should be better (there will be growing pains), more efficiency out of the QB position, and having a stud ILB again will be big for the defense. The investment in young OL should pay dividends to the future if they pan out. Moderate upgrade in OC too even though I think his RZ play calling is going to alarm some folks
. Obvious downgrade at WR2 but we'll do some things to mitigate that.
Despite the overall improvement, the worst thing though is our schedule... it's absolutely brutal. Hardest in the NFL based on projected Vegas win totals. And even I have to admit we were pretty fortunate last year in terms of our W/L record in one score games and the fact that we avoided Burrow 2x, Lamar, Watson in division due to various circumstances. I could see our offense improving from a miserable 17ppg in 2023 to something resembling a league average 21ppg, all while still having a top 5ish defense, and we could still win fewer games because of our schedule.
It's simply unrealistic to think we can compete with a prime Mahomes, although that's the case for all but like 5 other teams.
Sportsbooks have us at O/U 8.5 wins with a lot of the money being on the over, probably a reasonable line. For what it's worth our super bowl odds were like +8000 before the draft and FA, now we're +5000