The Terrible Podcast – 2026 Steelers Season Predictions, Falcons Name Week 1 Starter, & More

September 7, 2026 - Season 17, Episode 19 of The Terrible Podcast is now in the can. In this Monday morning show, Alex Kozora and I get right into discussing the first week of the 2026 NFL regular season now officially underway and how Pittsburgh Steelers HC Mike McCarthy will hold his first press conference on Monday afternoon. The Atlanta Falcons have officially announced that Tua Tagovailoa will be the team's starting quarterback for their Week 1 road game against the Steelers and so Alex and I discuss that news. We also discuss the Falcons revealing on Monday morning that Michael Penix Jr. will be inactive for their Week 1 game and thus will not be the backup against Pittsburgh. Will and should Steelers rookie OT Max Iheanachor open the regular season as the team's starting right tackle? Alex and I discuss that forthcoming decision the team will need to make this week. With the start of the Steelers 2026 regular season now less than a week away, Alex and I review our record predictions for the team as part of us revealing the entire staff's predictions as well. Alex and I go over our reasons for having the Steelers not making the playoffs in 2026 as part of us looking at positives and negatives on both sides of the football before the team's first game. We go over the ten things that are on Alex's mind, both positive and negative, when it comes to the Steelers 2026 season outlook. We also go over a few statistical questions that we both answered on the site over the weekend as well. This 95-minute episode also discusses several other minor topics not noted in the recap above and we end this show by answering several emails we received from listeners. Thanks to Len Testa at ⁠⁠touringplans.com⁠⁠ for once again being a sponsor of our Monday episodes of the podcast throughout the 2026 season. You can follow their work on X at @touringplans as well. steelersdepot.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices