DS Talk » Making it four years in a row is pretty rare as far as

The NFL's final four teams at the end of last season will start off as the top four going into the start of the 2019 season.Which is not all that surprising. Even less so is the team at the top: the defending champion New England Patriots. The Patriots received eight of the 12 first-place votes for 376 points in balloting Tuesday by media members who regularly cover the NFL.The Patriots will begin their quest for a seventh Super Bowl on Sunday night when they host the Pittsburgh Steelers. The two teams are tied for the most with six."The defending champs have a chance to make it to four straight Super Bowls Womens JuJu Smith-Schuster Jersey , and who's going to say they don't have a chance? Even with a 42-year-old quarterback and a 67-year-old coach," Newsday's Bob Glauber said of Tom Brady and Bill Belichick.The Kansas City Chiefs, who lost to the Patriots at home in overtime of the AFC championship game, earned two first-place votes for 357 points."Did defensive coordinators come any closer in the offseason to figuring out how to stop Patrick Mahomes?" Charean Williams of Pro Football Talk asked of the reigning league MVP.The New Orleans Saints and the Los Angeles Rams, who met in the NFC championship game, each received a first-place vote and were third and fourth, respectively."After two excruciating playoff setbacks, the Saints are poised to represent the NFC in Miami Feb. 2," said Ira Kaufman of Fox 13 in Tampa Womens T. J. Watt Jersey , Florida.Those two teams started a run of five consecutive teams from the NFC in the poll.The Philadelphia Eagles and Chicago Bears, who faced off in a memorable NFC wild-card game last season, followed at Nos. 5 and 6, respectively. The Eagles advanced when Cody Parkey missed a 43-yard field goal in the final seconds. The Bears have Eddy Pineiro as their kicker now as they host the rival Green Bay Packers on Thursday night in the NFL's regular-season opener."Secondary issues critical with (Vic) Fangio gone," Fox Sports' John Czarnecki said of the former Bears defensive coordinator who was hired in the offseason to be the head coach of the Denver Broncos.The Seattle Seahawks follow at No. 7 after making a big trade for defensive lineman Jadeveon Clowney last weekend.The Pittsburgh Steelers will have a different look on offense this season now that wide receiver Antonio Brown is with the Raiders and running back Le'Veon Bell with the New York Jets. They will start the season at No. 8.The Los Angeles Chargers and the Dallas Cowboys, teams that both lost in the divisional round of the playoffs last season, are tied at No. 9 to round out the top 10 teams. The atmosphere around the Pittsburgh Steelers has been pretty negative lately. And this is why I was shocked that the team just enjoyed its third-longest run of playoff appearances in franchise history."They say there’s a time and place for everything, including reflection.Just the other day, I was thinking about the Steelers recent streak of playoff appearances that reached four between 2014-2017 JuJu Smith-Schuster Jersey White , when it occurred to me that this was the third-longest such run in franchise history.It didn’t take me long to verify this, either. In fact, I didn’t really have to do much of anything other than think about it. We all know the story of the first 40 years of the Pittsburgh Steelers, when the postseason was easier for players to miss than soot from the surrounding steel mills. Obviously, the 1970s brought franchise-redefining championship greatness under Chuck Noll, along with eight-straight trips to the postseason from 1972-1979 (the longest postseason run in franchise history). The 1990s saw a return to greatness with hometown boy Bill Cowher, who took the Steelers to the playoffs six years in a row, starting with his inaugural season as head coach in 1992 (the second-longest postseason run in team history). The 1980s weren’t as kind to Chuck Noll and the Steelers as the previous decade was. The team made the playoffs four times, but only three of those trips occurred consecutively (1982-1984). Even the 2000s https://www.thesteelerslockerroom.com/authentic-juju-smith-schuster-jersey , literally the second-greatest decade in franchise history—one that produced four trips to the AFC title game and two Super Bowl victories—didn’t include the third-longest run of playoff appearances. In-fact, despite making the playoffs six times, the Steelers never actually had a streak of appearances longer than two (2001-’02; 2004-’05; 2007-’08). That leaves the aforementioned recent run of appearances, when head coach Mike Tomlin took the Steelers to the postseason four-straight years, a stretch that included three AFC North Division titles. So what is my point? Is this an attempt by a writer to troll the readers (as if pointing out something cool can seriously be categorized as trolling)? No. It just shocked me that 2014-2017 was actually the third-longest run because of how zany things have been of late. There’s been so much turmoil with the team in recent years, along with palpable unrest among the fans, it’s easy to forget just how stable and consistent things haveactually been on the football field. This isn’t to say Tomlin is above reproach. This isn’t to say we don’t have a right to be unsatisfied with zero titles in over a decade. This doesn’t mean we didn’t have a right to be completely and utterly disgusted with watching a 2.5 game lead in the division vanish before our very eyes over the final six weeks of the 2018 regular season. This doesn’t mean important changes shouldn’t be on the horizon if the results don’t meet the expectations of the fans and, more importantly, the organization as a whole. But it does mean—at least in my opinion—that things may not be as bad as they seem. Making it to the postseason once is hard enough. NFL teams are concerned. Believe me T. J. Watt Jersey , this isn’t an attempt to sway anyone’s opinion. If you’re optimistic about the current state of affairs, this article will only reinforce those beliefs. If you’re not, you will state rather emphatically that the Steelers don’t celebrate postseason streaks, and neither do their fans. I’m only pointing out that the current Pittsburgh Steelers—these Pittsburgh Steelers—have recently had the third-longest run of playoff appearances in team history. That may be a reality that’s hard to grasp in late-December when you’re down after a disappointing conclusion to what should have been a great season.But in April, that’s when football fans reflect.2014-2017: the third-longest run of playoff appearances in Steelers history. That’s pretty cool.