This week’s “Friday Football Footnotes” takes a look at some dueling views on the state of the 2022 Pittsburgh Steelers and Mike Tomlin’s place in it.

The team is 5-7 with five games left. It needs to win at least four (or go 3-1-1) to avoid Tomlin’s first losing season since being hired before the 2007 campaign. Given the six losses the club has already absorbed within conference play, it’d likely need to win all five to make the playoffs.

Tomlin’s group has two games looming against the Baltimore Ravens. Their former MVP quarterback, Lamar Jackson, will probably miss the first contest Sunday at Acrisure Stadium. He could be back for the New Year’s Day rematch in Baltimore.

The Steelers also face the Carolina Panthers (on the road, Dec. 18), Las Vegas Raiders (at home, Dec. 24) and finish the season at home versus the Cleveland Browns (Jan. 8). None of those teams currently have a winning record.

So while either goal of making the playoffs or finishing above .500 will be difficult to hit, neither is completely out of reach. It’s been interesting to see how the national media has positioned opinions on the matter.

Dan Graziano of ESPN is playing the optimism card. He said of Tomlin, “All right. He’s got me. I’m not ready to say he’ll do it, but I think you have to at least acknowledge the possibility. The only loss the Steelers have had in their past four games was a very close one to the Bengals, who were as good as any team in the league in November.

“Pittsburgh’s remaining games are home against the Ravens, at Carolina, home against the Raiders, at Baltimore and home against the Browns. You’re telling me they can’t go 4-1 (or 3-1-1) against that schedule? Especially if Lamar Jackson isn’t playing for the Ravens? I’ve reached the point where I’m no longer comfortable telling Tomlin what he can’t do. That was my bad.”

OK. Understood. There’s logic in that. But let’s not preemptively declare victory, either.

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Not only in the sense that Tomlin could still come up short of .500 and/or the playoffs. But let’s also avoid already portraying 2022 as a “close but no cigar” moral victory. A late push and a good effort after the bye won’t make up for the fact that if the Steelers don’t win a playoff game, it’ll be the 10th time in 12 years that the franchise has failed to do so. It’ll also be the sixth straight year without a playoff win (a post-Immaculate Reception record), and it could be the fifth time in 11 years that the Steelers miss the playoffs altogether, despite having significant talent in many of those seasons.

That said, I get where Graziano is coming from, even if it is a bit “prisoner of the moment” type of sentiment.

On the other end of the spectrum is Jeffery Chadiha of NFL.com. He said of Tomlin, “The man has gone 15 years without a losing season. He has a 5-7 team that needs to win four of its last five games for that streak to continue to 16. Not gonna happen. That’s not a knock on Tomlin. It’s just reality. The Steelers will see the Ravens twice, the Browns and the Raiders before the season ends. Sure, there are questions about those teams, but they’re all better than Pittsburgh right now. To be honest, it was stunning that Tomlin dragged a weak Steelers squad into the postseason in 2021. The Steelers are still mathematically alive in the postseason race. But they’re about to start fading fast.”

I disagree with Chadiha on that last point. I don’t think the Steelers are fading. I actually think they are rising. And with that schedule, I don’t see a fast fade coming at all. Also, I’m not certain that any of those teams — including if the Ravens don’t have Jackson in Game 1 — are definitely better than the Steelers.

So, where do I stand when it comes to these two views? Right in the middle. I’m more on board with Graziano’s stance that the Steelers are heading in the right direction, but I’m leaning toward Chadiha’s end result of the Steelers failing to eclipse .500 with nine wins.

If you ask me right now (I know, you didn’t, I’m asking myself), my bet is the Steelers win their next two games against the Ravens and Panthers to reach .500 at 7-7. Then they have their typical, almost annual “My God! How did they lose that game?” to the Raiders.

All the momentum in the world. Franco Harris jersey retirement. Immaculate Reception anniversary. The Raiders have to fly across the country to play on Christmas Eve.

There’s no way the Steelers can lose … until they do. They have one of those clunkers per year. Too often during the late-Bill Cowher/Tomlin era, it’s been to the Raiders. The Steelers are 2-6 versus Oakland/Vegas since 2006. Many of those losses have been much better editions of the Steelers than this year’s losing to even worse editions of the Raiders than this year’s.

So that’d drop the Steelers to 7-8, and I bet they split the last two games to end at 8-9. Or maybe Graziano is right about the potential of a tie to get to 8-8-1, so Tomlin can hold onto the coveted “never had a losing season” thing for another (empty) year.

Hey, that 8-8-1 was my pick at the start of last year. And thanks to those pesky Detroit Lions, I almost nailed it. Maybe I was just a year too early.

A lot could change depending on injuries between now and the end of the season, not only with the Steelers but every other team on their schedule and every other team in the AFC playoff mix.

But right now, the Steelers are stuck in a reality where they might earn an honorary NFC South crown (3-0 so far) but finish last in the AFC East (0-4) while perhaps being third or fourth in their own division of the AFC North.

That won’t be good enough to make the playoffs, even if they do somehow wind up being good enough to be over .500.

And for a coach who has made his reputation on the moniker of “the standard is the standard in Pittsburgh,” that standard needs to be raised to what it once was.

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