Ryan Clark isn’t buying a big Steelers surge in 2026.
The former Pittsburgh safety, speaking on ESPN’s NFL Live, said he sees Mike McCarthy’s first season as head coach landing the team somewhere in the middle of the league rather than among the AFC’s heavy hitters. Clark did give Aaron Rodgers credit for giving the Steelers a steadier baseline, but he stopped well short of calling them a true title threat.
“I think they can be slightly above average,” Clark said. “Aaron Rodgers can get this team to nine wins or 10 wins and you maybe sneak into the playoffs or you’re fighting for a wild card.”
That’s the lane Clark believes Pittsburgh is in: competitive enough to hang around the postseason picture, but not built to go toe-to-toe with the conference’s best rosters. He pointed directly to the offense and the defense as the reasons for that ceiling.
“Nobody expects this team to compete with some of the top rosters in the AFC,” Clark said. “This team offensively still has holes. This team defensively has to get better on the second level at the linebacker position.”
The Steelers have tried to support Rodgers with additions like Michael Pittman Jr. at wide receiver, and the reunion with McCarthy gives the quarterback a familiar voice in the building. Rodgers arrives with four NFL MVP awards and the kind of resume that can change the temperature of a season, but Clark’s view is that experience alone won’t erase every concern on the roster.
There’s also the defensive side of the ball, where Pittsburgh is looking for more from the linebacker group under new defensive coordinator Patrick Graham. Clark’s comments match the broader feeling around the team: enough talent to stay in the hunt, but still plenty of questions about depth and consistency.
If the Steelers do end up in the nine- or 10-win range Clark described, they’d likely be right in the mix for an AFC wild card spot. To get beyond that, Pittsburgh would need Rodgers to click quickly with his new targets and the defense to get back to the kind of steady play that can carry a season.
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