Getty Pittsburgh Steelers center Mason Cole shared a message on all of the AFC's 7-6 teams on December 12.
Despite two straight home losses and defeats in three of their past four games, the Pittsburgh Steelers will enter Week 15 as the No. 6 seed in the AFC playoff picture.
However, the Steelers aren’t far from being much closer to the bottom of the conference.
Pittsburgh is one of six AFC teams with a 7-6 record. Of those six teams, only two currently hold playoff spots.
The Buffalo Bills are also 7-6, but they sit in 11th place in the conference.
For those 7-6 teams, every game going forward is practically a must-win contest. That’s essentially the message Steelers center Mason Cole shared with reporters on December 12.
“It’s playoff football four weeks early,” said Cole, according to TribLive.com’s Joe Rutter.
Steelers Face Pair of 7-6 AFC Teams the Next Two Weeks
After losing to two previously 2-10 squads the first two weeks of December, the Steelers will meet two AFC opponents that enter Week 15 with the same record as them.
Those two opponents are the Indianapolis Colts and Cincinnati Bengals.
The Colts sit in seventh place of the AFC. That means, entering the weekend, the Steelers and Colts hold the final two AFC playoff spots.
But with four other 7-6 teams in the conference, it very likely won’t stay that way. The winner of the Steelers-Colts showdown will keep their playoff spot while the loser could tumble behind several other teams in the standings.
Then on December 23, the Steelers will welcome the Bengals to Acrisure Stadium. The Steelers knocked off the Bengals, 16-10, in Week 12, but that’s the only win Pittsburgh has earned over the last month.
The Bengals have won their past two games since then with victories against the Colts and Jacksonville Jaguars.
Even if the Steelers beat the Colts, Pittsburgh could fall into last place of the AFC North with a loss to the Bengals. Cincinnati faces the Minnesota Vikings prior to visiting the Steelers in Week 16.
The Crowded Field of Potential Playoff Teams in AFC
The easiest path for the Steelers to reach the postseason is to win. There are so many 7-6 AFC teams that any loss could greatly jeopardize Pittsburgh’s playoff chances.
Hence why Cole stated that the playoffs for the Steelers start on December 16.
If there’s any good news about the crowded field for the Steelers, it’s that the division leaders aren’t far ahead of the 7-6 teams.
The Colts and Houston Texans trail the Jaguars by just one game. The same is true for the Denver Broncos in the AFC West, as they are behind the Kansas City Chiefs by one game.
The Bills also still have a chance to win the AFC East, and the Cleveland Browns have hardly wrapped up the top AFC wild card spot.
There will be a ton of jockeying for playoff positioning over the next few weeks. As the Steelers saw after losing two in a row, it’s still possible to back into a playoff spot.
But of course, that can’t be counted in the NFL this time of year.
The Steelers’ margin of error at 7-6 is zero, which, as Cole implied, will make Week 15 feel like a playoff game.