Hello, Steeler fans and Happy Football Season! The Steeler begin their march towards another Lombardi Trophy on Sunday against their oldest rival the Cleveland Browns. The Browns who are coming off an 0-16 season and having only one win over the past two seasons want to try to finally get their franchise in the right direction. The Steelers who will be without LeVeon Bell who continues his contract holdout and James Conner will get the start Sunday as the Steelers will try to avoid the Ultimate "Tomlin Special".
Here is the breakdown of the Pittsburgh Steelers Week One Opponent: The Cleveland Browns.
Offense
The Browns will have a new offensive coordinator in Todd Haley who served in the same position from 2012-2017. The Browns also have a new starting quarterback in Tyrod Taylor, formerly of the Buffalo Bills. They also added RB Carlos Hyde (49ers), WR Jarvis Landry (Dolphins) and OT Chris Hubbard (Steelers). However, the Browns did suffer a huge departure at left tackle when ten-time Pro Bowler and future Hall of Famer announced his retirement this offseason. They will try to fill the void by starting Desmond Harrison an undrafted rookie out of West Georgia.
What the Browns will try to do is to test the Steelers leaky run defense that was exposed in the latter part of the latter part of the 2017 season. The Browns will ultimately try to get WR Josh Gordon as many touches as possible to make big plays on offense against a defense that gave up the third most pass plays of 40 or more yards in the NFL last season.
Defense
The Browns have a young talented defense which is led by 2017 top overall draft pick Miles Garrett, who is poised to be a dark horse candidate for Defensive Player Of the Year. Emmanuel Ogbah and Larry Ogunjobi will help him along the defensive line in Gregg Williams pressure defense to try to disrupt Roethlisberger.
One player on defense to look out for is linebacker Genard Avery a rookie out of Memphis who is in the mold of Bruce Irvin a linebacker that can be used as a pass rusher on 3rd down. The Browns are hoping that Jabrill Peppers and Denzel Ward develop into playmakers in the secondary because the best way for the Browns can win this game is to win the turnover battle on Sunday especially if ben tries to force the ball to Antonio Brown sans Bell.
Prediction: Steelers 27, Browns 20
The Steelers passing attack will prove too much for the Browns young secondary.
@bwalkerdadon
