Pittsburgh Steelers at Cincinnati Bengals 9/11/22 - NFL Picks & Predictions

The Pittsburgh Steelers visit Paycor Stadium in Cincinnati, Ohio on Sunday for the opening game of the NFL regular season for both teams. Last season Pittsburgh finished 9-7-1 after finishing 12-4 in 2020, and this season will be the first without longtime quarterback Ben Roethlisberger under center. The Steelers will start Mitchell Trubisky at quarterback and will focus much of their offense on the running attack led by Najee Harris. The wide receivers corps is talented and deep with Chase Claypool, Diontae Johnson and George Pickens amongst others.

Pittsburgh's 3-4 defense will be led up front by ends Cameron Heyward and Larry Ogunjobi while the nose tackle is Tyson Alualu. The strength of the defense is the linebacker corps with TJ Watt, Devin Bush, Myles Jack and Alex Highsmith. Pittsburgh also has a strong secondary with safeties Terrell Edmunds and Minkah Fitzpatrick while the top two quarterbacks are Cameron Sutton and Levi Wallace.

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Cincinnati opens its defense of the AFC title when hosting Pittsburgh on Sunday. Quarterback Joe Burrow is listed as questionable as is wide receiver Tee Higgins but expect both to be starting on Sunday. Joe Mixon is the leading rusher for the Bengals, with the leading receiver being second-year star Ja’Marr Chase. 

Cincinnati's 4-3 defense will be led up front by defensive ends Sam Hubbard and Trey Hendrickson while the two tackles are BJ Hill and DJ Reader. Germaine Pratt is the middle linebacker and will be flanked on each side by Akeem Davis-Gaither and Logan Wilson, who is listed as questionable. Safeties Vonn Bell and Jessie Bates III anchor the Bengals secondary while Eli Apple, also questionable, and Chidobe Awuzie are the top cover men for the Bengals.