The Pittsburgh Steelers enter 2026 trying to squeeze one more run out of Aaron Rodgers. However,one bold prediction has that plan ending about as badly as possible.
Pittsburgh won the AFC North at 10-7 last season before Mike Tomlin stepped down after 19 years as head coach. The Steelers then hired Mike McCarthy, brought Rodgers back for what he has said will be his final NFL season and kept much of a veteran roster intact.
CBS Sports doesn’t see that producing another division title.
CBS Sports’ Douglas Clawson predicted Pittsburgh will go from first place in the AFC North to last in 2026, something the Steelers haven’t done in nearly four decades.
Steelers Predicted to Go From First to Worst in AFC North
His outlook for the Steelers was one of the harshest on the list.
“Aaron Rodgers’ swan song will flame out as the Steelers will finish in last place in their division for the first time since 1988. Mike McCarthy won’t be able to turn around a Steelers team that overachieved with Mike Tomlin,” Clawson wrote.
That would be quite the reversal.
Pittsburgh finished 10-7 and won the AFC North by two games over Baltimore. The Steelers went 4-2 in the division and reached the playoffs before Tomlin decided in January to step down.
Tomlin’s departure ended one of the most stable runs in NFL history. Steelers president Art Rooney II noted at the time that Tomlin never posted a losing season across 19 years, reached the playoffs 13 times and won the AFC North eight times.
McCarthy became just the fourth Steelers head coach hired since 1969.
The Pittsburgh native arrived with 174 career regular-season wins, a Super Bowl title and previous head-coaching stops with Green Bay and Dallas.
He also reunited with Rodgers, whom he coached for 13 seasons with the Packers.
CBS is predicting that reunion won’t be enough.
Steelers Haven’t Finished Last Since 1988
Clawson’s prediction would end one of the NFL’s longest-running divisional streaks.
Pittsburgh’s last last-place finish came in 1988, when Chuck Noll’s Steelers went 5-11 and finished fourth in the old AFC Central behind Cincinnati, Cleveland and the Houston
That team allowed 421 points, the most in the NFL, and finished with a minus-85 point differential.
The Steelers haven’t finished at the bottom of a division since.
That includes every season under Bill Cowher and every season under Tomlin, whose refusal to post a losing record became one of the defining marks of his tenure.
The challenge for McCarthy is inheriting those expectations without the same long-term stability.
Rodgers is 42 and has already said there is “zero debate” that 2026 will be his final season. Behind him, Pittsburgh has Mason Rudolph, second-year quarterback Will Howard and rookie third-round pick Drew Allar.
The roster, which was deemed one of the oldest in the league, is also built heavily around veterans such as Cameron Heyward, Jalen Ramsey and T.J. Watt, making this season look much more like a win-now attempt than the beginning of a rebuild.
That is what makes Clawson’s prediction sting.
Pittsburgh isn’t entering 2026 trying to develop quietly for the future. It is running back Rodgers, handing the offense to a Super Bowl-winning coach and trying to capitalize on a defense built around established stars.
CBS sees the opposite outcome.
If Clawson is right, Rodgers’ final season won’t merely end without another playoff run. It will end with Pittsburgh occupying a spot in the standings the franchise hasn’t seen since 1988.
Steelers’ 38-Year Streak Predicted To End Under Mike McCarthy