Your team is one of the lucky few to make it into the NFL postseason, there is no downside to that right?  Well, when you are the Pittsburgh Steelers it’s a little more complicated than that.  Here are three reasons why we think the Steelers making the playoffs is not necessarily a good thing:

1. No answers to the quarterback question

The starting quarterback for the Pittsburgh Steelers will be Mason Rudolph on Sunday versus the Bills.  No one can blame Mike Tomlin for riding the hot hand at this point in the season.  The offense hasn’t looked this good in years now. The problem here is nobody with any sense thinks Rudolph is the long term answer.  He is just a short term fix the team fell into under dire circumstances at the position.

The fact that the Steelers first round pick, and anointed next franchise quarterback Kenny Pickett  will not be playing in this game is detrimental to the long term success of this team.  After two below average seasons, Pittsburgh is no closer to finding out if he can do the job than they were the day they drafted him.  There are tons of excuses for Pickett’s failures.  Some legit, some not so much.  We needed Kenny Pickett to finish this season without Matt Canada as his OC.  We needed to see Kenny Pickett in a playoff atmosphere.  The fact that he was unable to do so, through injury or lack of talent, leaves us with more questions than answers in 2024.

2. Validation for bad process:

The Steelers offense has been broken since 2018, there’s no denying it.  They have averaged 18.7 points per game over the last three seasons.  Mike Tomlin’s choices at quarterback, and offensive coordinator have been less than ideal to put it politely.  And yet over this time the Steelers have managed to not have a losing record in any season.  This despite having a negative point differential over that time as well.

All of this is to say the Steelers making the playoffs just validates this team’s bad process on offense.  It is hard to critique a coach who never produces a losing season.  It’s even harder to tell a coach to make necessary changes coming off a playoff birth.  Even if those changes are absolutely necessary to everyone outside the building.  Making the postseason gives Mike Tomlin all the ammunition needs to stay the course.  And that’s not a good thing for the future of this franchise. It’s time for significant changes in Pittsburgh

3. Unable to leave the spin cycle;

The Pittsburgh Steelers franchise measures itself by championships, not winning records.  Or at least it used to.  Scraping by to be just above .500, and then either missing the playoffs or getting bounced in the first round is not the standard.  Pittsburgh has been within 2 wins/losses of .500 in 5 of the last 6 seasons.  The Steelers making the playoffs costs this franchise probably 10 spots in the draft order.  And to what end?   To once again be bounced in embarrassing fashion like they have in their last three appearances?

There’s no question having Mike Tomlin as the Pittsburgh Steelers head coach is a blessing.  It is also a curse at times as well.  He has the unnatural ability to will bad teams far past their capabilities.  He also has the uncanny knack to underachieve with talented rosters.  The end result is always being just good enough not to be bad, but never good enough to be great.  The Steelers are stuck in a spin cycle of mediocrity.  Something that a playoff appearance inures they stay in for the foreseeable future. This franchise has no real hope of a playoff run, and no early draft pick to build the future upon. Indeed in the case of the Pittsburgh Steelers, a trip to the postseason isn’t necessarily a slam dunk good thing at all.