The Steelers have long been lauded for their stability. From the ownership to the coaches to the players, the Steelers seldom have a lot of turnover from year to year.
That's what makes this year so interesting.
The Steelers open the season Sunday in Buffalo, and it's anyone's best guess how the season will end. You see it in the national prognostications, that have the Steelers doing everything from successfully defending their AFC North title to finishing last in the division, from reaching the Super Bowl to having a top-10 pick in next year's draft.
The reality likely lies somewhere in between.
The Steelers haven't had a losing season since 2003, the year before they selected Ben Roethlisberger in the first round of the draft. It seems highly unlikely they're suddenly going to fall apart as a franchise and win the four or five games some suggest. Yes, I'm referring to the clown somehow employed by several major media organizations including NFL.com who is Adam Schein.
But it's also hard to look at this team's offensive line and see it reaching the Super Bowl or even AFC Championship. Now, to be fair, you won't find many -- if any -- doing that. But FootballOutsiders.com gives the Steelers a 2.2 percent chance to win the Super Bowl. That's not to just get there. That's to win the championship.
Those are better odds than even everyone's offseason darlings, the Browns, who are given a 1.7 percent chance of hoisting the Lombardi Trophy.
Again, the reality is likely somewhere in between those two extremes, but the point is the projected outcomes usually aren't that large for an organization such as the Steelers.
But that's what happens when you have an opening day lineup -- as the Steelers will -- that includes 11 new starters. Now, realize that players such as Vince Williams and Stefen Wisniewski started the Steelers' regular season opener last year against the Giants.
However, a team that will start four rookies on offense is bound to have some struggles at times.
That said, a team that employs the likes of T.J. Watt, Minkah Fitzpatrick and Cam Heyward on defense and has an established veteran quarterback such as the aforementioned Roethlisberger figures to be in the mix regardless of the schedule.
And no, I'm not concerned about Watt's readiness for the season, despite the star linebacker participating in his first practice Wednesday. He looked ready to go.
• Much of the angst surrounding the Steelers seems to center on Roethlisberger.
Yes, Roethlisberger struggled last December, when he posted an 81.9 passer rating and threw 9 touchdowns against 5 interceptions in the team's final five games.
But it was all on his shoulders. The Steelers averaged -- averaged! -- 61.4 rushing yards per game in December.
It says here the additions of Najee Harris and even Kalen Ballage will ensure that doesn't happen again. Both are better -- or at least more reliable -- than any running back the Steelers put on the field in 2020.
Roethlisberger won't be any less effective than Phillip Rivers was last season when he threw 24 touchdown passes and 11 interceptions in 16 games. In fact, there's a good chance that he'll be better than that.
If he is, the Steelers will be in playoff contention. Remember, seven teams go to the playoffs in each conference.
• This year's defense has a chance to be better than the one the Steelers put on the field last season when it ranked first in the NFL in DVOA according to Football Outsiders.
The depth at outside linebacker, with the addition of Melvin Ingram, is better than it was a year ago. All due respect to Bud Dupree, the combination of Alex Highsmith and Ingram is better playing opposite Watt than the combination of Dupree and Highsmith was a year ago, when the latter was an untested rookie who had no preaseason.
The inside linebacker duo of Devin Bush and Joe Schobert could be among the best at that position in the NFL and is certainly the class of the AFC North.
The secondary? There are questions there to be sure, but after the acquisition of Ahkello Witherspoon via trade with the Seahawks over the weekend, it looks much stronger in terms of depth than it did a week ago.
In fact, while listening to Jim Miller and Pat Kirwin's "Moving the Chains" show on Sirius Wednesday, they were breaking down the top five cornerback units in the NFL and both had the Steelers in the top 5. Again, that's not my rankings but theirs.
They measured the units based on players 1 through 5 at the position. And when you look at it that way, the Steelers come out pretty well. They don't really have a truly weak player on their roster at the position.
They also may not have a star there any longer -- certainly not that of some teams -- but the depth is as good as it has perhaps ever been when they can take their time allowing Witherspoon, a player with 33 starts in four seasons with the 49ers, to take his time learning the system.
In some previous years, they would have been making that trade to insert him right into the lineup, something they did in 2015, for example, when they signed Ross Cockrell on Sept. 5 and he saw significant playing time right away.
• It will be interesting to see how the Browns handle being the hunted this season as opposed to the hunter.
Earlier in this training camp the Browns were talking about their regular season opener against the Chiefs in Kansas City as the first of two meetings between the two teams.
The Chiefs are favored by 6 points in this game, not all that different from the 6 1/2 points by which the Bills are favored over the Steelers in their opener.
Remember, the Chiefs and the Bills played in last season's AFC Championship.
It says here the Steelers have a better chance to beat their spread than the Browns. Given that Andy Reid has had an entire offseason to prepare for this matchup, don't be surprised if the Browns lose by at least two scores.
And then the real fun will start.
• If there is something that derails the Steelers this season, it will be that offensive line.
The team obviously would have liked to have sorted things out better in the preseason than it did. Then again it does feel pretty good about the two rookie starters, Dan Moore at left tackle and Kendrick Green at center.
In fact, if Moore continues to improve as he did from the time training camp opened -- when he couldn't block the sun out of an ant's eye -- to the end of the process, he could wind up being pretty good.
This year's draft was deep at offensive tackle and center, so much so the Steelers could afford to wait to select Green in the third round and Moore in the fourth.
In most years, Moore is a second-round pick. After all, he was a three-year starter at Texas A&M, which was lauded for having the best offensive line west of Alabama last season.
Green might have been a second-round pick in many years, as well. But interior offensive linemen don't get selected nearly as high as tackles.
As it was, Moore was the 17th tackle selected in this draft and looks like a steal.
That's not to say the Steelers got the top center and/or tackle in this draft. That would be a bit much to ask.
But if they got viable long-term starters at both spots in the middle rounds, it will go a long way toward fixing the line issues. Add in second-year guard Kevin Dotson, a fourth-round pick a year ago, and this line could be set up nicely for the future -- at a minimal cost in draft capital.