RESOLVING THE LEDGER
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See the full story · 1 sourcesAug 03, 2026; Latrobe, PA, USA; Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Mike McCarthy talks with quarterback Aaron Rodgers (8) during a practice session at Training camp at Saint Vincent College. Mandatory Credit: Barry Reeger-Imagn Images | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect
The Steelers play football tomorrow!
With the preseason just a day away at this point, Read & React is back with our promised mailbag column ahead of Thursday night’s kickoff. In late July, we asked for some questions about the team, and you all delivered. I’m also happy to announce that, due to the few questions we got about training camp, we brought in contributor Joey Bray, who has been covering training camp for BTSC, to help us out with this column.
Let’s dive in:
Polamolecules_Dude : After seeing so many rankings for the Steelers (WRs, etc) being ranked so low, how realistic are these rankings with a whole new coaching staff and many new players? Is it just because of so many changes, or nobody really knowing what to expect from this team? Is that maybe a good thing?
RB : Without real football to fall back on, the summer becomes ranking season for much of the media, and we’ve kept tabs on quite a few of the more prominent lists here at BTSC. Ryan and I even devoted a column to discussing whether Pittsburgh was being disrespected by the national media based on where the Black and Gold have been falling in power rankings as of late (I said the Steelers are possibly underrated, but not egregiously so).
Regarding the last part of your question, is it a good thing? Maybe. Some athletes are always looking for a little bit of motivation, and I’m sure rankings articles can supply that, but there hasn’t been much noise about that beyond fanbase and media chatter.
But although I think it’s fair to argue the team ranking can be low in the preseason lists, the player rankings have largely been reasonable. And I can say that while still being a bit more optimistic regarding the roster than the national media.
Simply put, the Steelers are a roster in transition. A lot of the big names have aged out of their prime, but while the tired narrative of an “old roster” is somewhat accurate in regards to the team’s star players, it doesn’t properly represent the overall roster. Sure, many of the young, upcoming names — which are often forgotten in that narrative — haven’t truly reached stardom yet. But that still leaves Pittsburgh with a surprisingly solid roster from top to bottom, even if it has few consensus “top 10” names.
I’m not sure if that has much to do with uncertainty regarding the new coaching staff, which, if anything, has seemingly increased the optimism around how the Steelers can maximize talent on both sides of the ball. But there is definitely plenty of uncertainty regarding whether those older players can keep fighting off Father Time, and whether the younger names can keep their upward trajectories.
As for the main part of your question, I don’t think the rankings are particularly realistic or unrealistic — frankly, even the best of us fail to accurately predict much of each upcoming NFL season. As players such as Zach Frazier, Joey Porter Jr., Troy Fautanu, Nick Herbig and Darnell Washington continue to stack strong seasons, they’ll probably start to get more national hype and I’m willing to bet the Steelers see one or two more players on ESPN’s top-10 lists heading into next season, even as names such as TJ Watt and Cam Heyward start to fade out of the spotlight.
To your point, though, there are plenty of unknowns with this team, and I can’t wait to move from the endless speculation to the “real football” part of the year, which kicks off tomorrow for Steelers fans. Still, well-put-together rankings can be an interesting look at how the team compares to the rest of the league. Check out Bleacher Report’s Brandon Thorn’s informative offensive line ranking (which was bullish on some Steelers) for a strong example.
CT-Steeler4Life : Now that the Steelers have gone out of their comfort zone and hired a 62-year-old head coach (Austin and Noll were 47 and Cowher and Tomlin were 43 when hired), how long do you predict McCarthy sticks around? If he can’t work wonders with this current quarterback room, which everyone thinks he’s good at, I believe that after 2 seasons, Steelers Nation will be calling for his replacement. Which young head coach candidate is your preference for the long-term future?
RP : I was skeptical about the McCarthy hire when it happened. Hands up to the sky, full transparency here: I am the guy who wrote the opinion piece on why hiring McCarthy would be a mistake . Like you, most of my arguments against that decision were tied to the long-term potential of hiring a 62-year-old coach taking on his third head coaching gig. Those concerns are certainly still in the back of my mind when I take the big-picture view of this club’s future.
But I must admit, I have found most of the reports from OTAs and now training camp to be a breath of fresh air. I am still thankful for Mike Tomlin’s contributions over the years, but regular readers of this column know that both Ryland and I were ready to see some new ideas and voices take over for a team that had grown stagnant. We are all familiar with the various complaints about how this team has been run in recent years, and I don’t particularly feel like litigating them again is useful or necessary at this point.
But I will say that the staff McCarthy has surrounded himself with gives me some optimism. The players brought in during free agency and through the draft mostly make sense. I may still believe the end result for the Steelers will be similar, but I’m encouraged that steps are being taken to address some of the team’s longest-standing concerns. Players, like Keeanu Benton, are being asked to play positions that fit them more naturally than the miscastings they were forced into and stubbornly held to by the old regime. I have a growing confide...
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