The Pittsburgh Steelers are sixteen games into the regular season, and that means it’s time to track who has done well, stock up, and who hasn’t, stock down, as the team turns the page to the Baltimore Ravens in the AFC Wild Card Round of the NFL Playoffs.

As always, these are just my lists, so feel free to voice your opinion in the comment section below.

Stock Up

Team Health in the Playoffs

Whether you believe the Steelers can win a playoff game or not, the team is at least as healthy as anyone can expect them to be at this juncture of the season. Donte Jackson is dealing with his back issues, MyCole Pruitt’s knee is a problem, and Mason McCormick is figuring out of he can play with a broken hand. Sounds drastic, but when you have your big-name players all healthy and available, that’s the best-case scenario in the single elimination tournament. Will it be enough? That has yet to be seen, but the excuse of injuries heading into the game can’t be used.

Cam Heyward

The veteran defensive lineman is finding unique ways to impact games, and the Week 18 game vs. the Bengals was the perfect example of that. Heyward had just one tackle, but 3 pass defenses. On the season Heyward now has more pass defenses than some of the league’s elite defensive backs. Heyward has been a bright spot on a defense which has had few in the last four weeks, and it has capped off a tremendous season. Throw in the fact he was playing with the flu last week, and a healthy Heyward could wreak havoc on the Ravens in Baltimore.

Zach Frazier

Sometimes rookies get lost in the shuffle for a team playing in the postseason. Frazier has done a tremendous job this season, and looks every bit the part of the anchor the Steelers wanted, and needed, heading into the regular season at center. Frazier will only get better, and that bodes well for the Steelers offensive line moving forward. It hasn’t always been perfect for Frazier, especially as he came off his ankle injury, but his arrow is trending up not just for the season, but for his overall career in Pittsburgh.

Stock Down

Running Game

The Steelers running game was supposed to be a strength of the team this season, but it has been lacking during the team’s 4-game losing streak. To cap things off the Steelers rushed for only 74 yards vs. the porous Bengals defense in Week 18, averaging just 3.2 yards per rush. The Steelers will have to run the ball better in the Wild Card Round if they want to win, and you have to wonder if Justin Fields will be a part of that objective, if the team decides to use him. Nonetheless, the Steelers running game is headed in the wrong direction heading into the playoffs.

Russell Wilson

Wilson’s play hasn’t been horrid, but it hasn’t been good either. What is most bothersome to me are the bone-headed mistakes being made in critical junctures of the game. They are the exact opposite of what you’d expect from a veteran quarterback. The Steelers brought Wilson in as a “been-there-done-that” quarterback, yet he has looked like anything but a veteran in certain situations. The end of the Week 18 game where Wilson elected to not throw the ball away or run out of bounds was the perfect example of some of the decisions which have been glaring in the final stretch of the season. Wilson has to improve this part of his game if the Steelers stand a chance in the postseason.

Arthur Smith

Smith has had his issues this season, but what I can’t get over is how he is trending in a conservative fashion as of late. The Steelers are a team who thrived off chunk plays once Russell Wilson took over, but now the offense seems to have morphed into Matt Canada’s 2.0 version. Motions in the system are for nothing, and they are avoiding those “dangerous” parts of the field. Maybe this is a directive from Mike Tomlin, but if Arthur Smith wants to finish this season on a high note, especially with teams viewing him as a potential head coaching candidate, he might want to fight back a little and get creative for the Ravens.

George Pickens

Last week I had Pickens as my X-Factor heading into the game vs. the Bengals. What better way to shut up the critics than to go out and have a fantastic game. What happened was a 1 catch, 0 yards, 3 drop game which most fans would love to forget. Pickens is a highly emotional player, and the Steelers need to get him feeling good about himself early in the game Saturday if they want to exploit a shaky Ravens secondary. Force-feeding No. 14 isn’t the answer, but hopefully getting him some early catches will open up the offense the way they had hoped when Pickens returned form injury. Otherwise, no one’s arrow is trending further south than Pickens.

Playoff Hopes

Don’t confuse this as no one having any hope, but at this point playoff hopes aren’t going in the direction we had all hoped. There are some fans who don’t even want to watch the game Saturday night. I’ll be watching no matter what, and would be doing so even if it wasn’t part of the job, but I’d be lying if I didn’t tell you the usual playoff excitement isn’t there for me. Once the game starts that will change, but you can’t blame any fan who says they don’t have much hope, not after the last four weeks.

Be sure to follow SCN for all the latest news and updates as the team prepares for the Ravens on the road on Saturday night on Wild Card Weekend.