Doubting the Pittsburgh Steelers has become a bit of an annual tradition in recent years, and the latest prediction from NFL media doesn’t buck the trend!

Ahead of the NFL Combine, free agency and draft, Pro Football Network published one bold prediction for each NFL team for the 2025 season. Their prediction for the Pittsburgh Steelers was that 2025 would mark the team’s first losing season under head coach Mike Tomlin. Stop me if you’ve heard that one before!

It’s not the first time Steelers fans will hear NFL media pundits voicing skepticism for Pittsburgh’s outlook in 2025, and it won’t be the last. It’s fair enough, considering the lack of quarterback, question marks at wide receiver, offensive line (is Broderick Jones a future starting left tackle?), secondary (should Pittsburgh re-sign Donte Jackson?) and yet another disappointing close to the season.

But predicting the team’s first losing season under Tomlin isn’t a new revelation though. In fact, the Steelers haven’t been projected for a winning record by Vegas since the 2020 season. In 2021, the projected win total was at 8.5 per Pro Football Reference. In 2022, it was at 7.5, in 2023 it was 8.5, and in 2024 it was 8.5.

On the prediction, their team wrote:

Pittsburgh was able to repeat their 10 wins from 2023 in 2024 despite a 6.4% decline in their Offense+. There is something to Mike Tomlin getting the most out of his players, but slow starts proved to be a death wish for every other AFC team in 2024, and that’s something that is hard to outrun.

The Steelers have to face the NFC North this season, home to the NFL’s top two first-quarter teams (Packers: +67, Vikings: +62). Pittsburgh’s overachieving and finishing second in the AFC North last season gives them a more difficult outlook for 2025, something that could end one of the more impressive streaks in modern-day sports.

If the Steelers did incur a losing season, would that be where Art Rooney II draws the line with Mike Tomlin after a series of disappointments?