The Steelers are a pretty good NFL franchise.
Their six Super Bowl wins are tied with the Patriots for the most all-time, and their history is rich and lengthy, dating back to the dynasty of the '70s and stretching well into the '00s.
Recently, however, the Steelers have missed the playoffs in back-to-back seasons, going 8-8 in 2019 and 9-6-1 in 2018. Still, in the past decade, they've made the playoffs six times, including a Super Bowl loss in 2011 and an AFC Championship loss in 2016.
All this makes a recent report from ESPN's Adam Schefter interesting from a Steelers perspective:
NFL playoff structure is about to be changed. Under the current CBA proposal, seven teams from each conference will make the playoffs, with only bye per conference, sources tell ESPN. It would go into effect this upcoming season. More coming on https://t.co/rDZaVFhcDQ.
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) February 19, 2020
Under this expected-to-come playoff structure, the Steelers would have made the playoffs each of the past two years as the No. 7 seed.
And it doesn't stop there.
Since taking over for the Steelers in 2007, Mike Tomlin has never had a losing record. He's gone 8-8 three times, 9-7 once and 9-6-1 another time, missing the playoffs each of those years. Each of the other eight seasons, he made the playoffs.
And in those five misses, Tomlin's Steelers finished as the No. 7 seed every time. That means his teams were always right on the cusp of making it, battling for a position but ultimately falling short. Under the new proposal, the Steelers would have made the playoffs in 16 straight seasons, with their last miss being a 6-10 2003 campaign under Bill Cowher. Following that season, the team drafted Ben Roethlisberger with the No. 11 overall pick, and yeah. The rest has been pretty solid, including two Super Bowl wins and what would be a ridiculous streak of postseason appearances under this new format.
Digging a bit deeper here, there's legitimate reason to believe some of those non-playoff squads could have made noise in the postseason. In 2006, Cowher's final year as head coach, the Steelers got out to a disastrous, 2-6 start before finishing 6-2, with each of those losses down the stretch coming in blowouts to the Ravens. They defeated the Saints, who finished 10-6 and made the NFC Championship, during that run as well.
Ultimately, that was the only playoff team in the six victories, but that 6-2 stretch plus the fact the team won the Super Bowl as the No. 6 seed the year before gives some hope that the team might've done something had they squeaked in as the No. 7 seed.
In 2009, things weren't going quite as well for the squad, as they blew a 6-2 start to the year to finish on a 3-5 run, including back-to-back overtime losses, one to the Chiefs and one to the Ravens. They did defeat a pair of playoff squads in the Packers and the Ravens in Weeks 15 and 16, respectively, but this team made its bed with that five-game losing streak from Week 10 to Week 14. They finished with the No. 12 offense and the No. 5 defense, ultimately a disappointing end for two statistically solid squads.
In 2012, the Steelers brought the No. 1 defense in yards-per-game, allowing just 275.8 yards per contest, but the offense ranked 21st with just 332.8 yards per game. The story was similar but more average all-around in 2013, when the Steelers had the No. 13 defense and No. 20 offense.
The 2012 squad, in particular, was cooked down the stretch, finishing on a 2-5 streak, with one of those wins coming against the 5-11 Browns. Even if they made the playoffs, there's little reason to believe they'd have shaken things up against the No. 2 seed New England Patriots.
To me, however, 2013 is a different story. The Steelers began the year 0-4 but finished 8-4, with three of those losses coming by six points or fewer. Again, though, the Patriots entered the postseason as the No. 2 seed, so the Steelers would've had to head to Foxborough, Mass., to defeat the Patriots. They lost there in Week 9, 55-31, the only loss by more than six points in those final 12 games.
There's little reason to believe Devlin 'Duck' Hodges could've traveled to Arrowhead Stadium to wipe out the eventual Super Bowl-winning Kansas City Chiefs had the Steelers made it last season. That campaign came mercifully to an end right when it needed to for that team, this despite a stellar defensive showing all year. The offense just wasn't there, and they almost certainly wouldn't have won a shootout against Patrick Mahomes and company.
For me, 2018 is the one that got away. The Steelers finished 9-6-1 in a season that was just bizarre throughout, including the tension between the team and Antonio Brown before Week 17. And despite all that madness, the team finished with the No. 6 defense and the No. 4 offense on the year, defeating the eventual Super Bowl-winning Patriots in Week 15 while coming just three points shy of taking out the Saints on the road a week later. That team, had it made the postseason as the No. 7 seed, was the one most likely to have made a run. The No. 2 seed that year? Yep, the Patriots again, whom the Steelers just showed they could defeat mere weeks earlier.
But that's all conjecture, fun as it may be. And impressive as a 16-year playoffs streak would be, it'd still fall just short of the Patriots' run, who have only missed the postseason twice since 2002. In 2008, the team went 11-5 and would've made it as the No. 7 seed to face, interestingly enough, the Steelers, who were the No. 2 seed and won the Super Bowl that year. The Steelers stomped the Patriots, 33-10, in their Week 13 meeting that year in Foxborough.
In 2002, however, the Patriots went 9-7 and would've lost out on the seventh seed to the Broncos, who defeated them in head-to-head play that year. That'd give them a slight edge on the Steelers at 17 straight playoff appearances.
For now, Steelers fans will have to enjoy what they actually have: One of the best, most consistently successful franchises in NFL history.
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