Damien Woody: Russell Wilson Making Steelers ‘One Of The Best Teams In The AFC Right Now’

The Pittsburgh Steelers are on a four-game winning streak after beating the Washington Commanders 28-27 on Sunday. QB Russell Wilson may have thrown his first interception in his three starts with the Steelers, but he also threw three touchdowns. The defense held the Commanders to only 60 yards rushing.

It was a tight game, but the Steelers did enough to win. They are still in first place in the AFC North by a half game over next Sunday’s opponent, the Baltimore Ravens. It’s hard to imagine the Steelers being in a better spot at this point in the season. But what does it tell us about their future?

Former NFL guard Damien Woody thinks it’s time to include the Steelers in the discussion of NFL contenders.

“I know it’s hard for people to wrap their minds around,” said Woody on Monday’s episode of Get Up on ESPN. “I was one of those people that thought that Justin Field should have been the starter. But clearly Mike Tomlin knows his team better than anyone at this table. And if you look at the way, I always say like when I think of Super Bowl teams, I think of a few things. You gotta have a coach, you gotta have a quarterback. You got the defense. Do the Pittsburgh Steelers have all three? Yeah. Yeah, they have all three. Sure. So you can’t sit here and tell me, regardless of what we thought about the Pittsburgh Steelers early on the season right now, you can’t tell me that the Pittsburgh Steelers aren’t one of the best teams in the AFC right now.”

In the AFC, there aren’t many teams that people could say are demonstrably better than the Steelers. The Kansas City Chiefs are still undefeated but needed to block a field goal to avoid losing to the Denver Broncos. The Buffalo Bills beat the Indianapolis Colts 30-20. The Baltimore Ravens beat the Cincinnati Bengals, but the Houston Texans lost their second-straight game on Sunday night.

The truth is that there are only seven teams in the AFC with winning records. So any team with a winning record is currently in the AFC playoffs.

But when you dig deeper, the Steelers are proving to be one of the best teams in the conference anyway. Since Russell Wilson became the starter, he’s thrown for six touchdowns and ran for another. In fact, he became the first Steelers quarterback since Ben Roethlisberger to throw three touchdowns in the same game. Early results with Wilson as the starter may not be perfect stats-wise, but it’s obvious that Wilson has elevated the Steelers’ offense to a level it has not been in a very long time.

As for the defense, Sunday’s game was only the third time this season that they allowed at least 20 points. It was also the first game that the Steelers won this season when giving up at least 20 points. So the defense is usually quite good, and now the offense proved that it can make a difference when the defense isn’t elite.

And what more can be said about Mike Tomlin? ESPN’s Mike Greenberg thinks that there isn’t a coach doing a better job than Tomlin in the NFL right now. When you combine those three elements, how can the Steelers not be considered one of the best teams in the AFC?