Wattĭespite the injuries that plagued his 2021 season, T.J. Heyward has been one of the most consistent defenders in the league for five straight years now, and there’s no reason to have him any lower than this on a list of the best Steelers in 2022. At 32 years old last season, Heyward was still an All-Pro player and many considered him to be second in the NFL at his position only to the legendary Aaron Donald.Įven though Heyward is now 33, He looks like he’s in peak condition, and he has admitted vocally that he doesn’t plan on calling it quits anytime soon. Cameron Heywardįather Time isn’t catching up to Cameron Heyward anytime soon. With respect to his position, I would fully expect him to be a top-three player on the Steelers roster in 2022. Fitzpatrick has instincts, athleticism, and ball skills. By the end of the year, he was making one big pass breakup after another. After two phenomenal campaigns in 20 in which he earned consecutive First-Team All-Pro honors, Fitzpatrick came back down to earth a bit last year. Statistically, Minkah Fitzpatrick didn’t have the season fans had hoped for in 2021. Assuming is still the most highly targeted player on the team and the target quality improves even a little, he could be considered a better player than he was in 2021. Johnson is coming off a career year and recently earned a massive new contract extension. What more could you ask for in a former third-round pick? Though Johnson has been inconsistent with drop issues in the past, his drop rate was lower than starts like Cooper Kupp, Justin Jefferson, and Tyreek Hill last season. Diontae Johnsonįor some reason or another, many fans have a love-hate relationship with Diontae Johnson. He just needs to get a little more help from his offensive line. Still, I think Najee will take that second-year leap and prove to be one of the better running backs in the league. Sadly, it has yet to equate to efficiency on the field, and he ranked just 35th in DVOA among running backs in 2021, according to Football Outsiders. While I still don’t stand behind Pittsburgh’s decision to spend valuable first-round draft capital on running backs, it’s clear that Harris is talented. However, he’s better than his efficiency stats would indicate. Najee Harris isn’t yet the star running back that fans want him to be. Here are my Steelers rankings for the upcoming season: Steelers player rankings ahead of in 2022: 5. I would also like to name Pat Freiermuth and Myles Jack as my honorable mentions who just missed the top five this year. For these rankings, I don’t factor in positional value rather, I rank them with respect to how good they are at their positions.įor the purposes of making things interesting, I didn’t include special teams players, so Chris Boswell isn’t on the list. Advanced statistics show that Pittsburgh simply wasn’t very good on either side of the ball last year, but stars have the ability to control the game at times.Įvery year before the start of the season, I like to take a stab at predicting who the best players will be for the Pittsburgh Steelers. Watt alone from the equation, the results yielded could have been much worse. There’s simply no way the Steelers earn a 9-7-1 record during 2021 without the help of their stars. The Pittsburgh Steelers have some players they will lean on heavily in 2022, but here are the best on their roster entering the new season.

2022 pittsburgh steelers roster