Pittsburgh Steelers Sit At No. 15 In NBC Sports NFL Power Rankings

Mike ‘I say really stupid and irrelevant things’ Florio, began posting his pre-season power rankings and has finally reached the Pittsburgh Steelers.  He places the Steelers this season at No. 15 out of the 32 teams.  His reasoning – hard to say since he never really comes out and critiques the team:

"If any team other than the Steelers had the same roster and played in the same division as the Ravens and Bengals, the predictions for 2013 would be dire.  But these are the Steelers.  They find ways to overachieve when they’re counted out, and that helped them finish in the top half of our preseason power rankings."

So what makes them counted out, Mike?  The roster? The coaches?  Ownership?  Well it couldn’t be that because then he says this:

"Could they finish far lower in the final power rankings come January?  Sure.  But the Rooneys know how to run a football team and Mike Tomlin knows how to coach it.  We’ve got a feeling that the Steelers will come out swinging, with large chips affixed to each shoulder."

Apparently, those chips must be of the Frito Lay variety because those chips Florio speaks of lands them at No. 15.  And what’s with praising ownership and coaching so much, yet according to Florio this team sounds like it barely survives making it out of the locker room each Sunday?

I guess if we are solely talking about ‘power’ within a team – whether it be roster, coaching, ownership, etc. – then I think it’s a pretty accurate number given to this team despite the lack of evidence presented by Florio.  The evidence I would present would be: Positives – Ben Roethlisberger, a young and smart offensive line, solid secondary, and oh Ben Roethlisberger again.  Negatives – not a powerful run game, not a powerful blitzing linebacker core (yet), a questionable receiving core, and overall team followthrough to finish out games.  That’s a bit more reasonable and fair, don’t you think?  Thanks for the little effort, Mike.

It’s true that Big Ben is the wild card for the Steelers.  He always keeps them competitive and always gives them a chance to win even if the chips seem down (the poker kind, not Mike’s Frito Lays).  As long as he can stay healthy, the Steelers can feel good about finishing the season nine wins or above.  Without Ben, the Steelers struggle and lose quite a bit of fire in their engine.  It will be interesting to see where Florio puts the rest of the AFC North.