Loss vs. Browns triggers power rankings drop for Steelers ahead of Week 12

The Pittsburgh Steelers are 6-4 and in the AFC playoff hunt, but where does that place them in the NFL power rankings?

The Pittsburgh Steelers are 6-4 heading into Week 12 of the NFL season. After losing to the Cleveland Browns, the Steelers are currently the No. 7 seed in the AFC playoff picture, but where do they stand in power rankings across the internet?

Here’s a look at the Pittsburgh Steelers’’ standing in NFL power rankings ahead of Week 12.

NFL.com writer Eric Edholm ranked the Steelers at No. 13.

The Steelers announced the firing of much-maligned offensive coordinator Matt Canada on Tuesday. Not exactly shocking news, considering Pittsburgh’s well-documented offensive issues continued in a 13-10 loss to the Deshaun Watson-less Browns on Sunday. We’ll see if this move jump-starts the Steelers’ attack, but I still feel like the time is nigh to stop making excuses for Kenny Pickett. Yeah, yeah — I might have been the voice of reason before, but I am slowly seeing the light of the dark side. Struggling to get much of anything going in Year 2, Pickett just hasn’t been seeing it or feeling it. We all caught the complaints before Canada’s firing about the offensive design doing Pickett a disservice, but that felt similar to the Mac Jones excuses we heard in chorus last season, vis-à-vis Matt Patricia. (How’s that working out this year in New England?) Even if the young quarterbacks’ situations are different, the criticism is the same: justified. The Steelers have gone 6-4, often in spite of what the passing game has done. Maybe the play-caller shakeup helps, but it seems like the problem runs deeper here. Can Jaylen Warren play QB? Winnable games lie ahead, and the playoffs are a reasonable goal, but can the Steelers actually threaten anyone if they get into the tournament?

The Athletic’s Josh Kendall at No. 15, one spot lower than last week.

Pittsburgh has been outgained by every opponent this season. On Sunday, a Cleveland team starting fifth-round rookie quarterback Dorian Thompson-Robinson beat and outgained the Steelers. Thompson-Robinson was not good, but the Steelers and 2022 first-round quarterback Kenny Pickett were worse, punting on seven of their first eight possessions (not counting an end-of-half kneel-down). Pickett is 30th in yards per attempt (6.1) and 28th in rating (79.2) in the NFL, and the Steelers still might make the playoffs.

Bleacher Report had the Steelers at No. 13, one spot higher than last week.

The Pittsburgh Steelers have been outgained in every game this season. Over the first nine games of the season, that didn’t stop the team from winning six times.

Sunday in Cleveland, the Steelers were unable to make it seven out of 10.

It was another rough day throwing the ball for Kenny Pickett, who went 15-of-28 for 106 yards against Cleveland’s top-ranked defense. Pickett didn’t throw a touchdown pass in the game, and in doing so he made some unfortunate history. Per Jarrett Bailey of Behind the Steel Curtain, of the 315 quarterbacks in NFL history with at least 500 pass attempts, Pickett is the only one to throw a touchdown on less than 2 percent of his throws (1.9%).

In 23 career games, Pickett has thrown zero touchdown passes in 10 of them. Houston Texans quarterback C.J. Stroud already has more career passing touchdowns than Pickett in less than half the games, and New York Giants rookie Tommy DeVito has more games with multiple passing touchdowns.

Having just fired Matt Canada, time will tell how the Steelers offense will respond and whether that could force some more shakeups in their standing in NFL power rankings moving forward. The Steelers will face the Browns in Week 12 with kickoff set for Sunday, November 26 at 1 p.m. ET from Paul Brown Stadium.