Good Wednesday to you Steelers’ fans.
It is now official. The National Football League will expand from 12 to 14 teams in the postseason. This will begin starting with the upcoming season. What you can expect is the following… Each conference will now have only one team with a BYE week. This is of course the top seed. On Wild-Card Weekend there will be six games. Seed two will host seed seven. Seed three will host seed six and seed four will host seed five. The lowest remaining seed would then play at the top seed while the two other winners from Wild-Card weekend would play at the higher seed’s field. As I laid out a few weeks back, I’m not crazy about expanding the field because I don’t want us to become the NBA or NHL where half of all teams make the postseason. Making the playoffs has to be a worthy accomplishment and by adding just one team in each conference I fear the NFL will suffer this fate. Last season for instance the 8-8 Steelers would have been the seventh team. We lost our last three and would you really want to watch us in a postseason game? (OK the answer is always yes but you know what I mean.) With all this said, six games on one weekend will be pretty damn exciting!
The Podcast
Tonight is the night. We will record episode 169 this evening and no, there will not be any April Fools pranks either.
Tweet of the Day… No explanation necessary.
AFC North Twitter has been feisty lately. I'll just leave this here…
Last Playoff Victory:
Pittsburgh: 2016
Baltimore: 2014Cleveland: 1994
Cincinnati: 1990Lots of people out there making bold claims who weren't even born the last time their team won a playoff game.
— The Steelers n'at (@thesteelersnat) March 31, 2020
On Schedule…
According to sources within the NFL the regular season is slated to begin on time as of this writing. With most models projecting the end of this month as the worst period of the coronavirus, I am hopeful that the NFL can in fact begin on time. Not going to lie here though, I have some concerns.
Inside Backer Depth
I saw some discussion recently about the Steelers not having inside linebacker as a ‘draft priority’ for later this month. First of all, none of us know what their priorities are right now and to suggest otherwise is reckless. That in mind, I find it hard to believe they won’t take a hard look at the position in the Draft. With Mark Barron cut and Tyler Matakevich off to Buffalo, the depth is thin behind Vince Williams and Devin Bush. The major question is just how do the Steelers feel about Ulysees Gilbert? His speed is tremendous but do they like him enough to make him a primary backup? Will it surprise me if they don’t draft an ILB? A little bit to be honest but if they don’t, that could be a nice vote of confidence for Gilbert. Stay tuned on this one.
Have a great and safe day Steeler Nation!
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