Efforts to draw conclusions from the Pittsburgh Steelers’ 31-17 defeat in their Wild Card playoff matchup in Buffalo are bound to be frustrating. In the wake of yet another cameo appearance and unceremonious exit from the playoffs, we’ll undoubtedly be hearing more from those who continue to believe Head Coach Mike Tomlin is incapable of preparing his team for the postseason. But in reality, nobody who watched the team throughout the 2023 regular season should have harbored any illusions that these Steelers were legitimate Super Bowl contenders. Monday’s playoff exit merely put an official stamp on what Steelers Nation already knew about this team.

As well as he had played to close out the season, did anyone honestly expect Mason Rudolph to channel Ben Roethlisberger during the second half in frigid Buffalo? Essentially, this game was over at halftime with the Bills comfortably ahead 21-7. At that point, with Rudolph having thrown an interception in the end zone to snuff out a Steelers scoring opportunity — plus a George Pickens fumble to set up a Buffalo TD — the Steelers had already broken the cardinal rule of not turning the ball over in must-win games. And without the services of T.J. Watt, nobody honestly expected the Steelers’ patchwork defense to contain Josh Allen and the Buffalo offense.

Beyond seeing promising development from some younger players — plus likely eliminating Mitch Trubisky from their quarterbacking corps — we don’t know very much more about this team today than we did last August. The OL might be marginally better but it’s still not nearly good enough. Kenny Pickett remains a work-in-progress while Rudolph at least has shown himself to be a serviceable backup.

But some nagging issues persist unchanged on this team, including Mason Cole’s shoe-top snaps, Pressley Harvin’s wildly inconsistent punting, Patrick Peterson’s apparent aversion to tackling and Dan Moore’s turnstile blocking. At this juncture, you’d need a crystal ball to foresee how the Steelers’ QB situation will develop next season. And despite Matt Canada’s long-awaited departure, it’s obvious the Steelers still lack the requisite level of offensive coaching to become serious contenders.

Mike Tomlin probably accomplished enough by leading this flawed team to a 10-7 regular season record to quell any thoughts he might depart the Steel City on any terms besides his own. But in the absence of any certainty about whether the Black-and-gold truly is a team on the upswing, or merely treading water, it’s obvious that 2024 shapes up as a crucial year for the franchise.

It seems unlikely the Steelers front office would be satisfied to endure another season with the team mired in its current limbo and incapable of making a credible playoff bid. That’s why so much rides on Kenny Pickett’s further development plus the organization’s success in hiring a competent OC.

Beyond these major challenges, the Steelers cannot expect to survive another full season with the kind of patchwork approach they’ve used throughout much of their past 18 games. Quite simply, the Steelers have relied on too many second-line, utility players for manning key positions on their roster. They must continue to build their OL to the point where it can be recognized as one of the league’s best. Only after the OL has been secured will this team be able to take better advantage of talented players such as George Pickens, Najee Harris, Jaylen Warren and Pat Freiermuth.

Likewise on defense, the Steelers must secure what often resembles a mushy middle by adding top-flight run stoppers from front to back. Tackling, in particular, has been suspect during this season’s stretch run and they must address this shortcoming effectively.

As for the defeat ending Pittsburgh’s season, it’s largely irrelevant to the team’s trajectory next season. What happened in Buffalo certainly does not mean that Mason Rudolph won’t eventually succeed as the team’s starting QB — any more than Kenny Pickett’s overall performance so far proves he’s destined to become a draft bust. Similarly, despite outward appearances, this defeat doesn’t bolster the familiar narrative of Coach Tomlin’s persistent critics. On the contrary, Tomlin needed to do an impressive job simply to get this shoddy team into the playoffs. In Buffalo, the Steelers played about as well as could be expected in view of the aforementioned flaws.

But it won’t be too long before the picture clarifies concerning the success or failure of this transition. The bottom line at season’s end is that Steelers fans still aren’t watching a complete team on the field. Under such circumstances, no player on the roster is able to realize his full potential. Because some of the key components are missing on this team, everyone looks worse.

Rather than opting for the drama of blockbuster, offseason deals, the Steelers would be wise to accept that their current rebuilding process might take longer than expected. But assuming further success with personnel in the 2024 NFL Draft and offseason, free agent market, there’s no reason why the Steelers cannot become a significantly improved team. In 2023, however, the Black-and-gold clearly lacked several of the bricks necessary to construct the house they desire. Ultimately though, 30 other NFL teams also will come up short of their expectations.