ESPN's Louis Riddick Defends Steelers; Throws Massive Shade At Jeff Darlington After His Stupid Comments "Who's Going To Finish Last If Not The Steelers?"

The Pittsburgh Steelers are immersed in the start of training camp and look to be off to a solid start. As always, the analysts and reporters are out making predictions for how the season will go. This includes predictions on how each division will shake out and who should be looked at as playoff contenders. At ESPN, they predicted the Steelers to finish last in the AFC North.

However, a Pittsburgh believer emerged from the shadows and stood up for the Steelers: Louis Riddick. On the ESPN show Get Up, co-hosts Riddick and Jeff Darlington got into a heated debate about the previous prediction that the Steelers would finish behind the Baltimore Ravens, Cincinnati Bengals, and Cleveland Browns.

At the start of the segment, Darlington pointed out that it pains him, but he has to agree with Head Coach, Mike Tomlin about the Steelers' potential for the 2023 season. He adds that Riddick is the one who originally stated that the Steelers would fall to the bottom of the AFC North. Someone has to finish last and if it isn't the Steelers out of these other strong competitors, which team would it be? He added that it is hard to pick any team out of this group. Apparently, Riddick changed his mind. 

Steelers Champion Louis Riddick Returns

Riddick, a University of Pittsburgh graduate, and former NFL safety selected in the ninth round in 1991, is now an analyst for ESPN. During his time in the NFL, he played for the Browns, San Francisco 49ers, Atlanta Falcons, and the Oakland Raiders. He also worked as an Executive for the Washington Redskins and the Philadelphia Eagles as a scout and director of personnel. He went at Darlington in regards to putting Pittsburgh last.

"It's really hard. Who's gonna finish last? Like I told you before we came on air, you gotta have a chest to do this and you don't have one," Riddick said to Darlington. "So stop being mad about it." 

They all laughed and Riddick added that if they put the Steelers last in the AFC North, then they are putting a lot of faith into the Browns to beat Pittsburgh twice. It also means, according to Riddick, that they strongly believe in Browns' Head Coach, Kevin Stefanski over Steelers coach Tomlin. The Browns have never won a Super Bowl and poking at them for falling short has become low-hanging fruit in the NFL joke department. 

"Quite honestly, if I'm Mike Tomlin right now I'm going, 'You're kidding me, right?' All of a sudden now we have much more confidence in Kevin Stefanski's track record and we have a lot more confidence in Deshaun Watson, all of a sudden they will just flip the switch and turn the page from last year?"

Riddick did say that he believes the Browns will be much better than they were in 2022, but that doesn't mean it will be enough to top Pittsburgh. He added that he expects improvement from Deshaun Watson, who Riddick noted looks much better so far during the early 2023 preseason period than he did in 2022. However, Riddick feels that is not enough to just dismiss the Steelers. He continues to push back at Darlington with a closing statement that brokered no argument. 

"Kenny Pickett is just all of a sudden now going to become average to mid? We're saying that he's not going to make an improvement in year two? Have you seen some of the highlights of George Pickens' catches in training camp? Did you watch the tape of Broderick Jones last year from Georgia? He's going to be the starting left tackle. Najee Harris will be much more of a downhill guy. We don't like Pat Freiermmuth? We don't like Minkah Fitzpatrick? We don't like TJ Watt? We don't like Alex Highsmith? WE DON'T LIKE MIKE TOMLIN? I just gave you a bunch of reasons you don't pick Pittsburgh."  

Riddick made good point after good point and has a very strong case for why the Steelers shouldn't be predicted to be in the basement of the division.

What do you think about Riddick's turnaround on the Steelers? Do you think the Steelers will beat out the Browns? Where do you think the Steelers will finish in the AFC North? Do you think we will make the playoffs this year? Click to comment below. 

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