The Pittsburgh Steelers are entering a new era with Aaron Rodgers and Mike McCarthy reunited for one final run. Bleacher Report’s Brad Gagnon believes it could end with something Pittsburgh hasn’t experienced in more than two decades.
Gagnon included the Steelers among his last-minute bold predictions for the 2026 NFL season and predicted Pittsburgh will finish with a losing record for the first time since 2003.
His reasoning was even harsher than the prediction itself.
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“I don’t remember the last time a core featuring a quarterback acquired just a year ago and a head coach hired just a few months ago felt this stale,” Gagnon wrote.
“Aaron Rodgers and Mike McCarthy? What are we doing here, Pittsburgh?”
Rodgers, 42, returned for what he has repeatedly said will be his final NFL season after Pittsburgh hired McCarthy to replace Mike Tomlin. The reunion pairs the quarterback and coach who spent 13 seasons together in Green Bay and won Super Bowl XLV.
Gagnon isn’t buying it as the start of another championship run.
He pointed to Rodgers not playing at an elite level since 2021 and McCarthy having only one playoff victory since 2017. He also questioned the supporting cast around Rodgers, calling Pittsburgh’s skill-position group average and its offensive line “good-not-great.”
The concerns weren’t limited to the offense.
“While there are some legends on that defense, that unit was thoroughly average overall in 2025,” Gagnon wrote. “It’s fair to wonder what Cameron Heyward and T.J. Watt have left in the tank.”
Pittsburgh went 10-7 last season and made the playoffs, but its year ended with a 30-6 wild-card loss to the Houston Texans. That extended the franchise’s playoff-win drought through another season and preceded Tomlin stepping down after 19 years as head coach.
Now McCarthy is tasked with keeping another Steelers streak alive.
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Pittsburgh has finished .500 or better in 22 consecutive seasons, which is an NFL record.
The last losing Steelers team went 6-10 in 2003 under Bill Cowher. Pittsburgh then went 15-1 the following year after drafting Ben Roethlisberger and did not post another losing record during the remainder of Cowher’s tenure.
Tomlin took over in 2007 and never had one either.
Gagnon believes 2026 is where that run finally ends.
“This is a mediocre team destined for a blowup season and likely to be overmatched by the Ravens and Bengals in the AFC North,” Gagnon wrote. “It’s not a good recipe. It’s finally time for the Steelers to endure a poor campaign before entering an inevitable rebuild.”
That would make McCarthy’s first season in Pittsburgh historically bad for reasons that go well beyond missing the playoffs.
The Steelers have spent much of the offseason acting like a team still trying to contend. They brought Rodgers back, added Michael Pittman Jr. alongside DK Metcalf and signed running back Rico Dowdle while retaining a veteran-heavy defensive core built around Watt and Heyward.
There is also little mystery about what comes next at quarterback. Rodgers has said that 2026 will be his final season.
That makes this season Pittsburgh’s last attempt to squeeze another run out of its current setup before a larger reset becomes unavoidable.
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