- Super Bowl Championships: 6
- Last Super Bowl Championship: Super Bowl 42
- Claim to Fame: Have won the most Super Bowls (6) and are the only team to win 4 Super Bowls in a span of six seasons
- Claim to Shame: Just 1 division title in their first 40 years of existence
The Pittsburgh Steelers are one of the true glamour franchises in the NFL.
Founded by Arthur J Rooney in 1933, the team had a very rough first 40 years, with just one division title to its name in that span. That changed in 1974, though, when the Steelers won Super Bowl 9.
It turned into a banner decade in the Steel City. They were the first team to win four Super Bowls, and the only team to win back-to-back Super Bowls twice.
It was quite a drought from there, as the Steelers went 0-for-the-80s and 0-for-the-90s in their quest for Lombardi trophies, which included a loss to the Dallas Cowboys in Super Bowl 30.
A decade later, they joined the San Francisco 49ers and Dallas Cowboys in the five-time champions club with a win in Super Bowl 40. Just three years later, the Steelers became the first team to claim six titles with a win in Super Bowl 43 over the Arizona Cardinals.
For much of the 2010s, the team was defined by their Killer Bs – quarterback Ben Roethlisberger, RB Le’Veon Bell, and WR Antonio Brown. In 2017, these Killer Bs led Pittsburgh to an impressive 13-3 record. But again, they came up short in the playoffs, getting upset by the Jacksonville Jaguars in the Divisional Round.
Flash forward to 2019, and the Killer Bs are down to one: Roethlisberger remains, but Bell and Brown both left the team under less than ideal circumstances.
That could be addition by subtraction, though. JuJu Smith-Schuster and James Connor keep the skill positions filled with talent, while the defense has been bulked up with the likes of Devin Bush. Since 2014 the Steelers have been a top-three team in adjusted offensive DVOA three times, and finished 7th and 13th in the others. It’s safe to assume a similar output in 2019.
That said, with Roethlisberger now year-to-year in his decision-making process, the Steelers’ window for a seventh Super Bowl may be closing.
