30 Scenarios in 30 Days: The Steelers Defense Will Have More Takeaways This Season
The Pittsburgh Steelers are preparing for the 2025 regular season, but before the real games begin, the team has to head to training camp back at Saint Vincent College in order to fine tune their skills. As we here at SCN prepare you for the start of camp, we give you a series called “30 Scenarios in 30 Days” which gives you a Steelers scenario every day leading up to the start of camp.
It is simple how it works. We provide you the scenario, reasons why it will or won’t happen, and then our prediction for what we think will take place.
Let’s get to the scenario…
Scenario: The Steelers Defense Will Have More Takeaways This Season
Why it will happen: Last season, I believed the Steelers would have more takeaways than the previous season. They were coming off 27 in 2023 and I thought they could push a little bit higher. The Steelers came through and finished with a league-leading 33 takeaways during the regular season which had them tied with the Minnesota Vikings. Since 2021, the Steelers have increased their takeaways every season. Despite being tops in the league last year, the defense looks poised and ready to go so there is no reason to think that trend could not continue.
Why it won’t happen: In 2023, there were two teams that were tied for the lead in takeaways in the NFL with 31. The Baltimore Ravens and New York Giants tired for that top spot and were looking to improve in 2024. But things don’t always work out that way. The Giants had less than half as many takeaways in 2024 with only 15 and Baltimore didn’t do much better as they only had 17. In 2022 the Dallas Cowboys led the NFL in takeaways with 33 but in 2023 saw their total slip somewhat to 26 which landed them outside of the top 10.
What I’m trying to show here is that leading the NFL in takeaways one season does not necessarily bring more success in that category the next year. The Steelers went over 30 takeaways in 2024 for the first time since 2019 and it was only the fourth time they had done so under head coach Mike Tomlin.
The last time the Steelers had back-to-back seasons with 30 or more takeaways was in 2004 and 2005. But even when they did so, the Steelers went from 32 in 2004 to 30 in 2005. The last time the Steelers had 30 or more takeaways in a season and then had more the following year came in the mid 90s when they had 34 in 1995 and 40 in 1996. It should also be noted that the steelers went from 1969 through 1997 having at least 30 takeaways every year with the exception of the strike-shortened season of 1982 when they had 25 takeaways in nine games. As this shows, it was a different era in the NFL the last time the Steelers had 30 takeaways in a season and saw an increase the following year. It’s just not an easy thing to do.
Prediction: As much as I would like to say that I expect the Steelers to have even more takeaways this season, 33 was a pretty high standard to overtake. I still think the Steelers have all the tools to continue to take the ball away, it’s just a bit too ambitious to think that they will have 34 or more this year.
Miss a scenario? You can see the full list of scenarios below, and be sure to stay tuned to SCN for the latest news and notes surrounding the Steelers as they prepare for training camp.
The Steelers will go above and beyond their win-loss prediction in 2025
