Mueller: Watson's move to Cleveland makes Steelers' task even tougher

In the AFC North’s arms – or I guess arm, in literal terms – race, the Pittsburgh Steelers have fallen way behind. It is impossible to gin up much optimism for the team’s immediate prospects, now that the Cleveland Browns have pulled the shocker of all offseason shockers and landed Deshaun Watson from the Houston Texans.

Watson cost Cleveland their 2022, 2023 and 2024 first-round picks, as well as a 2023 third-rounder and a 2024 fourth. The Texans are sending back a 2024 fifth-rounder, which is nice. The Browns were reportedly off Watson’s list, until they weren’t, and the fact that Jimmy Haslam saw fit to reward Watson with a new five-year, $230 million contract – every penny fully guaranteed, which is an NFL record – probably had something to do with that.

It is, of course, a sad commentary on the NFL that a man who didn’t play last year and still faces 22 pending civil lawsuits over his alleged sexual assault and inappropriate conduct during massage therapy sessions got this sort of reward. The league seems likely to suspend Watson, but Haslam and the Browns even took care of him in that regard; his base salary for 2022 is just $1,035,000, which means he’ll only lose about $61,000 for each game he’s suspended.

I would caution Steelers fans from trying to claim a moral high ground over Browns fans, or play “gotcha” games after years of taunts from Cleveland about Ben Roethlisberger’s alleged sexual assaults in Reno and Milledgeville, because many of those very same Steelers fans happily helped Roethlisberger rehabilitate his image, despite his strategy amounting to nothing more than scrupulously avoiding the public eye.

Unsavory and all-too-familiar off-field aspects of the Watson deal aside, Mike Tomlin and his team have their work cut out for them like never before.

I think Watson is slightly overrated, but that merely means I have him as a top-10 quarterback, and not top-five. Adding him to the Browns instantly makes them not only a serious contender for the division title, but a team plenty capable of winning the Super Bowl.

Of course, they’ll have to get by the Cincinnati Bengals, who have a better quarterback in Joe Burrow, and as you might have heard, came up a few plays short of winning the Super Bowl five weeks ago. Cincinnati also added significant offensive line help in free agency, and might do even more in the draft. They’re loaded everywhere else on offense, and have room to grow on defense.

Then there are the Baltimore Ravens, who still have a former MVP at quarterback, and presumably won’t be completely gutted by injuries like they were this past season. As long as Jackson is healthy and John Harbaugh is the coach, the Ravens will be a tough out.

The Steelers have made some nice moves, to be sure. It’s clear they have a plan, and that plan is to get much younger and much better, particularly on the offensive line. I think it could very well work out. But Mitch Trubisky, despite his draft pedigree, is not Jackson or Watson or Burrow. Not close, really. It’s clear that Tomlin’s plan, this year at least, is to try and win with defense.

Good luck with that, Mike.

As for the AFC overall? The Buffalo Bills still exist, and might be better than any of the Steelers’ divisional opponents, and the AFC West sure looks like the best division in football now that Russell Wilson is on the Broncos, the Chargers have traded for Khalil Mack and signed J.C. Jackson, and the Raiders have added Davante Adams and Chandler Jones. Now that seven teams from each conference make the playoffs, it’s mathematically possible that an entire division can qualify. If that’s ever going to happen, I’d bet on it being this year’s AFC West.

You see the problem, though. I can count at least eight teams that are clearly ahead of the Steelers. Yes, the usual caveats about injuries and the NFL’s annual volatility apply, but all we can go on now is what’s on paper, and on paper the AFC looks like an absolute meat-grinder. The conference is so deep that the New England Patriots feel like an afterthought, and the AFC South hasn’t even been mentioned.

If there is one silver lining to all of this, it’s that it might make it easier for the Steelers to “organically” tank, by simply not being good enough at quarterback to keep up with their peers. If that happens, the team will have a chance to draft their next quarterback from 2023’s much stronger class, and if they pick right, they’ll very possibly be able to turn the tables on their divisional and conference foes.

Right now, though, such optimistic thoughts are a long way off. And getting to the point where they even have a chance at becoming reality is going to require plenty of pain on Sundays this fall.

This article originally appeared on Beaver County Times: Mueller: Watson's move to Cleveland makes Steelers' task even tougher