The Pittsburgh Steelers lead their all-time series against the Cleveland Browns 83-65-1. However, the balance is slowly shifting in the Browns' favor, with three wins over the last five meetings. That might become the new trend if these teams keep moving in opposite directions.
Though there is some understandable skepticism, the Browns are finally getting some love. They had a strong start to the offseason, revamping the offensive line to give new head coach Todd Monken a clean slate.
The Steelers, on the other hand, aren't fooling anybody.
While they've also made a couple of additions on offense, Mike Sando of The Athletic revealed that executives around the league are far from impressed with what GM Omar Khan is putting together. It's safe to say that not many people think the Steelers will stay atop the AFC North for much longer.
The Steelers are stuck in limbo, and that's great news for the Browns
For starters, replacing Mike Tomlin with Mike McCarthy wasn't necessarily a step in the right direction. Granted, this was long overdue, as they haven't won a playoff game in the past two presidential terms (and counting).
That said, Tomlin always managed to find a way to get his team to a .500 finish or better. McCarthy was unemployed for a year and was 1-3 in the playoffs with the Dallas Cowboys. He may not be the right guy to wake up that dormant, once-great franchise.
“Fans who had grown weary of the good-not-great status quo under former coach Mike Tomlin will have to find someone else to blame if nothing changes this season,” Sando wrote. “Is there reason to believe anything will change? ‘What is the plan? What is the vision?’ one exec asked.”
The Steelers don't even know who their quarterback will be. Aaron Rodgers may or may not return, and even if he does, he's a shell of the player he used to be and would be playing behind an offensive line that just lost Isaac Seumalo. Myles Garrett and Mason Graham are licking their chops at the thought of rushing a 42-year-old guy who's never been particularly mobile.
Sure, the Steelers traded for Michael Pittman Jr. and signed Rico Dowdle, but neither is a true difference-maker. If anything, the Steelers have gotten older.
“They got slower,” one executive said of the Pittman addition in Sando's report. “Rico Dowdle is a comfort signing for Mike McCarthy, who had him in Dallas. Mike knows what he’s getting. Pittsburgh, until they figure out who is going to pull the trigger, is a B-minus team.”
McCarthy's teams have never been known for their defensive prowess. He's had six top-10 scoring defenses in 18 seasons as a head coach. Tomlin was a defensive mastermind, and McCarthy will inherit an injury-prone, brittle, and aging defense that was already trending in the wrong direction last season.
This isn't to say that the Browns are definitely the better team, but they're a team actively trying to get better and work on their flaws. The Steelers, meanwhile, refuse to face facts and just blow the whole thing up. They're stuck in football limbo, not good enough to be a contender or bad enough to land the valuable draft picks they need to turn things around.
The AFC North might be up for grabs now more than ever, with three new head coaches and one that might be on the hot seat in the Bengals' Zac Taylor. As long as the Steelers don't realize that they're long overdue for a full-scale rebuild and continue to fool themselves by overrating their own roster, they'll continue to cede ground in the head-to-head matchup with the Browns, who are done being bottom-feeders in the division.