4 Steelers and NFL questions to start Week 8: Time for GM Omar Khan to give Russell Wilson more weapons?

By Adam Bittner / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

The Steelers earned a 37-15 victory against the New York Jets on Sunday night at Acrisue Stadium. Here are four questions for them and the rest of the NFL to ponder ahead of Week 8, when they’ll welcome the New York Giants to town on “Monday Night Football.”

Did Russell Wilson give GM Omar Khan the faith in this offense to make a move? The deep passing game worked against the Jets. It will probably work this week against a listless New York Giants squad. It might be plenty to get 3-4 more wins out of matchups with the division rival Bengals and Browns. (More on those two in a minute.) But does this group have the firepower to go head to head against the tough teams waiting on its schedule in the second half of the season? It’s a fair question after receivers Calvin Austin III and Van Jefferson combined for just three catches in the victory. Yes, the tight ends stepped up to help Wilson total 264 yards through the air. Yes, George Pickens went off despite facing one of the league’s better corners in New York’s Sauce Gardner. But is that going to be enough against the defending champion Chiefs on Christmas? Against the defending division champion Ravens who’ve seemed to find themselves the past few weeks? Against cross-state rival Philadelphia? Khan will have to answer that question soon with the NFL trade deadline looming on Nov. 5.

Has it ever been worse in Cleveland? Certainly the Browns have fielded worse teams since returning to the NFL in 1999. The 1-15 and 0-16 squads of 2016-17 come to mind. But at least those struggles had the purpose of helping a ground-up rebuild along, resulting in No. 1 draft picks that netted Baker Mayfield and Myles Garrett. The Browns weren’t trying to tank this year. They were a playoff team in 2023. They’ve had one of the better defenses in the NFL for years. And their offense entered the campaign reasonably well stocked with skill position players on offense. Many prognosticators picked them to finish ahead of the Steelers in the AFC North race. And yet, they stink anyway. Quarterback Deshaun Watson has been a major liability all season despite his massive contract. And now he’s likely going to be on the proverbial shelf for a while after reportedly rupturing his Achilles in a 21-14 loss Sunday against division rival Cincinnati that dropped the team’s record to 1-6. Frustration with the whole situation prompted booing of Watson from fans at Huntington Bank Field, which subsequently prompted Garrett and others to rip into fans in postgame remarks. All of that, and the team appears poised to move out of Cleveland proper for the second time in 30 years for a new suburban stadium after negotiations for a new building with the city fell through. It’s bleak. And there’s no obvious way out with Watson’s contract devastating the front office’s salary cap situation. Even if the Browns secure a high draft pick in the 2025 draft, their ability to surround him with a quality roster will be hamstrung until Watson’s contract is dealt with.

Are the Bengals rounding back into a threat? They’ve now won three of four while scoring an average of 27.5 points per game. Their much maligned defense actually hasn’t been that bad, outside of allowing 41 points in a Week 5 loss to Baltimore. They’ve limited Carolina, the New York Giants and Cleveland to just 15 points per game in their three victories. Quarterback Joe Burrow appears to be finding his stride coming off his season-ending injury in 2023 with nine touchdowns against just two interceptions in his past four games. Next week will be a great measuring-stick game against the 4-2 Eagles. Should Burrow and Co. win that game, they’ll be back to .500 on the season and well positioned for a second-half push given the sorry state of a lot of teams around the AFC.

Can anyone stop the Chiefs? They won their Super Bowl rematch against San Francisco on Sunday with relative ease, even with Patrick Mahomes having one of his worst days of recent memory. The former MVP threw a pair of picks and completed just 16 of 27 passes for 154 yards. That’s an average of just 5.7 per attempt. But the running game stepped up with 184 yards at the healthy clip of 4.7 per carry. And the increasingly pesky defense forced 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy into three picks of his own. Some tough tests remain. The 4-2 Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the first week of November. The Bills, Texans and Steelers will also get their chances to knock off the champs. They sure look like the class of the league right now, though. A scary thought considering they haven’t had the best injury luck, especially at the skill positions.