Sep 9, 2016 4 min read

The Washington Redskins won the NFC East last season, at least in part, by virtue of their 6-2 record at home.

But that record was built on playing a schedule that included not one playoff team playing at FedEx Field.

In fact, the Redskins played against just two playoff teams during the regular season in 2015 – New England and Carolina. They got smoked by both.

Add in their 35-18 loss to Green Bay in the playoffs, and Washington was outscored 96-34 in going 0-3 against playoff teams last season.

I bring this up because, of course, the Steelers open against the Redskins Monday night at FedEX Field and plenty of people have the Redskins winning a mediocre NFC East.

Perhaps they will.

But they don’t look to be a team that is on the same level as the Steelers. Yes, the Steelers were 3-4 against playoff teams last season, 4-5 if you count the postseason, but that’s a far cry better than 0-3.

That said, Kirk Cousins threw 16 TDs against 2 interceptions at home last season, putting up a 117.0 passer rating.

But that came against the likes of Miami, St. Louis, Philadelphia, Tampa Bay, New Orleans, the Giants, Dallas and Buffalo. There isn’t a team with a winning record to be found in that group.

Cousins has good weapons in receivers DeSean Jackson and Pierre Garcon along with tight end Jordan Reed, but the running game is iffy and the Redskins aren’t a team that stops the run or gets after the quarterback particularly well.

The Steelers will be playing this game without Le’Veon Bell and Markus Wheaton could be a game-time decision, but they do still have Antonio Brown, DeAngelo Williams and, most importantly, Ben Roethlisberger.

Roethlisberger averaged 328 yards passing per game in his 12 appearances last season, the third-best total in NFL history.

He’ll get the job done in this one.

The Steelers are 4-point favorites to win and though I think the Redskins will keep it close enough to cover, I like Pittsburgh, 30-27.

• Wheaton isn’t the only player who’s iffy for this game.

Though rookie nose tackle Javon Hargrave now appears ready to go after suffering a quad injury in practice Monday, Wheaton and fullback Roosevelt Nix could be gametime decisions.

We’ll see if they participate in practice Saturday, which will be telling, especially for Nix, who is just a second-year player.

But David Johnson can handle the fullback duties, which means the Steelers could chose to allow Nix to rest his injured back.

Wheaton, who has been resting a shoulder injury, said he intends to play, as well.

We’ll see. But right tackle Marcus Gilbert (elbow) and defensive end Cam Heyward (ankle) appear to be ready.

• All the fretting over David DeCastro’s contract was for naught.

DeCastro wanted to get a deal done to stay in Pittsburgh and the Steelers wanted him to stay. That usually means something gets completed.

Of course, the Steelers likely didn’t start out intending to pay DeCastro nearly $10 million per year. But that’s now the going rate for a Pro Bowl guard and so that’s what the Steelers are paying DeCastro.

Will it have long-term ramifications for the rest of the roster? Perhaps.

As things currently stand, the Steelers have around $40-45 million in cap space heading into next year based on an estimated cap of $166 million.

But that is with 34 players under contact for next year. The draft class will take care of some of that, but this team obviously will have some work to do re-signing some of its own players as well.

And there’s no way that receiver Antonio Brown is playing for his current 2017 salary of $4.7 million. An extension will be in order there.

By the time the Steelers start signing guys again this offseason, that $40-$45 million will evaporate quite quickly.

• Suspended Steelers receiver Martavis Bryant took to Twitter Friday to announced to people that he no longer smokes marijuana.

“Let me clear this up for everyone I don’t smoke anymore you lucky enough I am giving you this information especially to irrelevant people.”

That’s all well and good – missing puncutation aside. Why Bryant felt the need to share this, however, is beyond me.

For Bryant right now, it’s better to neither be seen nor heard. Keep your head down and get yourself right.

If people are ripping you on social media, so be it. You messed up. Unfortunately in this day and age, if you’re active on social media, everyone gets to target you with their opinions about it.

If you can’t handle that. Stay off social media.