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During the months leading up to their 2026 training camp at Saint Vincent, I believed the Pittsburgh Steelers would be a very different team than they were last year. But I thought they’d still wind up with the same result as they did in 2025. After many hours of observing practices, dozens of coach and player interviews, and lots of time to carefully reconsider my stance … … I feel the same way. The 2026 Steelers will be exactly who they were in 2025. They’ll be a nine- or 10-win team desperately fighting for playoff qualification with equally mediocre versions of Baltimore and/or Cincinnati. They’ll be the seventh team in the AFC playoff bracket, or the first team out of it. And, if they qualify, they’ll lose a first-round playoff game. Tell ya’ what. I’ll be more specific. And I’ll even give you the most optimistic version of what I just described. The 2026 Pittsburgh Steelers will be 10-7 again, win the AFC North again, and lose another home playoff game in the first round. They’ll just look a little different doing it. New head coach. New assistants. New schemes. New messaging. New practice habits. Very similar personnel. Under new coach Mike McCarthy, the offense will be more modern and inventive. You’ll see thoughtful play designs. Increased use of the middle of the field. Routes that are run with the intent of receivers opening up space for each other. Plays will be called to set up other plays later in the game. You might even see passes that go beyond the sticks on third down. Occasionally. You’ll get more out of Aaron Rodgers. Whatever he has lost going from 41 years old to 42 will be offset or perhaps even augmented by playing in a McCarthy scheme that helped him win a Super Bowl in 2010. Unless he gets hurt, or he and McCarthy end up wanting to kill each other after the kumbayah vibes fade away. That could happen after the first three-and-out against Atlanta in Week 1. You’ll actually see Pat Freiermuth targeted on purpose more often. That may be balanced out, though, by having to play Roman Wilson more often. It’s not a guarantee that you will see the Rico Dowdle/Jaylen Warren combination net all that much more from scrimmage than the Warren/Kenneth Gainwell combination of a year ago. Everybody on the offensive line is switching sides. Unfortunately, I don’t know if that’ll make any of them better. On defense, new coordinator Patrick Graham will make the Steelers less predictable than they were under Mike Tomlin and Teryl Austin. You’ll see T.J. Watt attack different gaps. You’ll see Nick Herbig deployed off the ball. You’ll see less of Keeanu Benton strictly on the nose. You might even see an occasional, straight-up, old-school 4-3. That said, I’m not sure if the most important players up front — Watt, Cameron Heyward and Alex Highsmith — are young enough and versatile enough to pull it off. There are some new guys in the secondary such as Jaquan Brisker, Jamel Dean, rookie Daylen Everett and a healthier version of Asante Samuel. The problem is, I bet we still see the all-too-familiar scene of Steelers DBs pointing at each other in confusion while Ja’Marr Chase or Zay Flowers celebrate in the end zone. Don’t expect that meme to leave your algorithms. It might be the Spiderman point, the Sophie Cunningham point, and the Steeler DB point — in no particular order. The only problem is, who are the offending defensive backs going to be? Is Joey Porter Jr. going to be ready Week 1? If not … then when? We know DeShon Elliott is hurt again. Are Brisker and Jalen Ramsey truly healthy? And I know Graham wants to use Ramsey in more and different ways than Tomlin did. What I don’t know is how effective he’ll be at it after an offseason knee issue. I can assure you that we’ll see fewer cutaways of the special teams coach. Danny Crossman isn’t remotely as entertaining as Danny Smith was. But between Chris Boswell’s kicking and the rest of the coverage and block units, Smith’s special teams were good enough. It’s tough to tell whether Crossman’s will be any better or worse. Oh, and it’ll also be different that the Steelers will have four quarterbacks. It’ll be very different if QB3 or QB4 actually have to play. Rodgers is the only one who matters. Maybe Rudolph, too, but he has already saved Christmas around here once. Asking him to do it a second time may be a bit much. Hopefully the Steelers are in a good enough playoff position, late enough in the season, that the club doesn’t need a Rudolph sequel or Tyler Loop 2.0 to make the postseason again. It always seems to come back to that spot, though, doesn’t it? I’m predicting that the Steelers will find themselves right back there again in January. They may just take a brand new route to get there.