The Pittsburgh Steelers have already played in Week 17, losing to the Kansas City Chiefs on Christmas Day. Compound that loss with the Baltimore Ravens win over the Houston Texans and the Steelers playoff seedings remain hanging in the balance. No longer control of their own destiny, as it pertains to a home playoff game via the AFC North division crown, it is valuable to look at what the playoff matchup scenarios for the Steelers heading into the rest of the Week 17 slate of games.

Let’s take a look at the possible scenarios based on how the teams who are “in the hunt” do in their respective games:

Steelers win vs. Bengals AND Ravens win or Steelers loss AND Chargers loss
– Steelers at Houston as the No. 5 Seed

Steelers lose vs. Bengals AND Chargers win
– Steelers at Ravens as the No. 6 Seed

Steelers win AND Ravens lose
– Steelers host the Chargers as No. 3 Seed

As you can see, there are a myriad of scenarios which could have the Steelers either hosting a game, highly unlikely, or traveling to any number of teams in the Wild Card Round of the AFC Playoffs. What matchup would you want the Steelers to have? Of course the best possible situation is the Steelers find a way to host a playoff game at Acrisure Stadium in the Wild Card Round, but if they have to travel, where would you want them to go?

Conventional wisdom would suggest the Steelers facing the Texans would be the optimal matchup for the black-and-gold, but they did go to Houston last year and lost to rookie C.J. Stroud and company.

There will be key games to watch in Week 17, so be sure to stay tuned to SCN for the latest news and notes surrounding the Steelers as they prepare for the Cincinnati Bengals in Week 18 at Acrisure Stadium.