During his season-ending press conference Thursday, head coach Mike Tomlin was asked if he thought that the gap between his Pittsburgh Steelers and the teams playing in this weekend’s divisional round of the NFL playoffs was smaller than it was a year ago.

“Certainly. But we’re watching and not playing,” Tomlin replied. “So, you know, there’s work to be done.”

I agree with the second part of Tomlin’s statement. I wish I could be as definitive as he was when he said that his club is “certainly” closer to those teams than they were a year ago.

In the strictest mathematical sense, Tomlin is right. The Steelers were a 10-win team this year. They were only a nine-win team a year ago. The Steelers finished in seventh place in the AFC, qualifying for the final wild-card spot. They finished in eighth place a year ago, missing the final playoff spot in a tiebreaker.

The Steelers also improved in their division, going from 3-3 to 5-1 despite the fact that every team in the division finished with a winning record, a first since the 1970 merger. And they beat the AFC’s regular-season champion Baltimore Ravens twice (albeit with many starters resting the second time) and a wild-card game survivor in Green Bay 23-19 as well.

First-round playoff losers in Cleveland and Los Angeles were also victims of the Steelers in the regular season, as the they beat the Rams and split with the Browns.

In those ways, obviously, yes, Tomlin’s claim is substantiated.

But then there’s the unfortunate reality that the Bills beat the Steelers by 14 in the playoffs’ first round. Two other teams that played last weekend, Houston and San Francisco, dusted the Steelers by a combined 60-13 score. So maybe the strides aren’t quite as long as we want to imagine.

We also must take into account the eye test of what we all saw over the weekend. If the Steelers played any of those eight teams last weekend, would they have beaten any of them?

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers, maybe? The Packers look significantly better than they did in Pittsburgh back in November. My guess is the Steelers would’ve gone 1-7 or 2-6 at best against that crew. Maybe 0-8.

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There’s one thing that really gives me pause about anointing the Steelers as a team that’s coming on strong in 2024, though. Shouldn’t we have to know who the quarterback is going to be on opening day first before making that proclamation?

We don’t know if it’s going to be Kenny Pickett or Mason Rudolph. We don’t even know if Rudolph — a pending free agent — is going to be on the roster.

If he isn’t, who is going to provide the “competition” for Pickett that Tomlin said he wanted to see?

“I think competition is good,” Tomlin said. “I think it’s good for all of us. I think it brings out the best in all of us.”

If Rudolph leaves, that competition may have to come from a rookie or a veteran who finished last year as a backup.

At least Rudolph ended 2023 as the Steelers starter. The starter who guided them to the playoffs when the team looked dead in the water at 7-7.

Even if Pickett does win the job, we have no idea what his level of performance is going to be. If it’s as mundane as it was before his ankle injury, that doesn’t bring the Steelers anywhere close to the level those eight teams were playing at this weekend.

With the possible exception of Tampa Bay (if Baker Mayfield isn’t retained), all 13 of the teams in the playoffs are set up in a better quarterback situation than the Steelers.

The franchise also doesn’t currently have an offensive coordinator. You might rebut that point by advancing, “So long as they don’t hire Matt Canada back, things will improve.”

I’ll give you that one. However, not knowing the potential ceiling of who will be taking over that job leads to uncertainty.

So does the fact that T.J. Watt ended the year injured. Minkah Fitzpatrick and Cam Heyward limped their way across the finish line. The inside linebacker position is still a black hole besides Elandon Roberts. Not to mention, they need at least one more corner, one more safety, a third wide receiver and potentially new starters at center and punter.

Put all that together, and if this Steelers team is really “closer” to where it needs to go, that says a lot more about how long the road has been than it does about how little there is left to travel.

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