PHOTO BY ABIGAIL DEAN | PITTSBURGH STEELERS

Just as it’s far too early to panic about the offense, it would also be premature to anoint a Steelers’ defense that has for the most part dominated in training camp at Saint Vincent College.

If you’re envisioning a latter-day version of the ’85 Bears, if you want to crown ’em, crown ’em.

But T.J. Watt is not and will not.

Not yet, anyway.

“It’s too early to tell,” Watt maintained this week. “Everybody looks good this time of year. Until we get into a stadium with another team, until we allow the offense to continue to make more adjustments to attack us differently, allow us to make more adjustments, see how many guys are willing to tackle, all those things are still yet to be determined.”

True enough.

But at the same time an impending defensive renaissance is worth pondering as a possibility if not an inevitability right about now.

Quarterback Aaron Rodgers has already checked a lot of boxes. If he stays healthy — perhaps the biggest “if” in the history of “ifs” — he’s going to be part of the solution, not part of the problem.

Left offensive tackle, the overall competence of the offensive line and depth at wide receiver are far greater concerns.

And the questions on the offensive side of the ball are foreboding in nature.

What if Broderick Jones doesn’t live up to his first-round billing?

What if DK Metcalf gets hurt, as George Pickens did last season?

What if they can’t run the ball any better than they did a season ago, when they ran it often but not well enough to justify such a commitment to the ground game?

The questions on defense, conversely, intrigue.

What if the rookie front-seven investments, first-round defensive lineman Derrick Harmon, fourth-round outside linebacker Jack Sawyer and fifth-round defensive lineman Yahya Black, are the run-stuffing reinforcements the Steelers so desperately needed after getting run over by the Ravens in the playoffs?

What if inside linebackers Patrick Queen and Payton Wilson, both in their second seasons in the Steelers’ defense, are much more impactful and splashy this time around?

What if the press-man coverage the Steelers seem determined to play turns out to be a catalyst for more sacks?

What if Jalen Ramsey is as omnipresent in games that matter as he’s been in practices as a physical, verbal and emotional presence?

There’s potential on offense, there’s hope, but also legitimate concern.

There are, to borrow a term scouts like to throw around when they’re impressed, “dudes” on defense, and they’re seemingly everywhere.

It’s trepidation on one side and expectation on the other.

Great expectations in some cases.

“I think it can be one of the best of all time,” safety Juan Thornhill has declared regarding the potential of this Steelers’ defense. “I’m putting that out there now.

“One of the best of all time.”

That’s a stretch, but also on point with the direction in which the Steelers are trending.

This much we know: They won’t be “The Greatest Show on Turf.”

But they might yet resemble the “Steel Curtain” or the ’85 Bears.

Mike Prisuta is the sports anchor/reporter for Randy Baumann and the DVE Morning Show. He’s also the host of the Steelers Radio Network Pregame Show and the color analyst for Robert Morris University men’s hockey broadcasts.