The Ravens entered the playoffs last season as the NFL’s best team, only to fall one step short of the Super Bowl. On Saturday, they’ll return to the postseason as an overqualified No. 3 seed with a daunting path to New Orleans.

So where do the Ravens stand ahead of their AFC wild-card-round game against the Pittsburgh Steelers? Here’s what reporters Jonas Shaffer and Giana Han and columnist Kyle Goon make of the team’s chances.

Where do the Ravens rank in the AFC’s hierarchy, and what would be their toughest playoff matchup?

Shaffer: I think the Ravens have the highest ceiling and the highest floor of any AFC team. They’ve already smashed the second-seeded Buffalo Bills and hung with the top-seeded Kansas City Chiefs. But of the conference’s three legitimate Super Bowl contenders, the Ravens also have the most difficult potential path to the Super Bowl: Beat an AFC North rival in what has largely been a one-sided series. Beat a most valuable player favorite in his house. Beat the defending Super Bowl champions and the NFL’s most overwhelming playoff force, also in their house.

With the Bills’ defensive downturn and the Chiefs’ much-improved form on offense, Kansas City should be the obvious favorite to get to New Orleans. The Chiefs are just a different beast in the playoffs, as the Ravens learned last season.

Han: The Ravens are ranked third for a reason. They might have the talent to be as good as the Chiefs or the Bills, but good teams are more than talented. They’re also consistent. While the Bills probably should have beaten the Texans and the Rams, they don’t have losses like the Raiders and the Browns on their resume. Luckily, the Ravens have proved consistent over this final stretch, but they worried me at times during the Week 18 Browns game. I believe the Ravens have the ability to beat anyone, but they too often play beneath their ability. Should they get there, the Chiefs will be their hardest matchup.

Goon: Damn the seeding. The Ravens are the second-best team in the AFC. If they face the Bills again, I’d expect them to beat them again given the strength of their matchups in the run game. The Ravens can deal with Josh Allen. Buffalo might not have an answer for Lamar Jackson and Derrick Henry. Sorry for being Captain Obvious here, but the best team they’d face in the playoffs are the Chiefs. Kansas City may win by one score every week, but with a 15-2 record, that’s more of a skill than a fluke. When it comes to crunch time, the Chiefs are always hard to beat.

Who’s under more pressure to win: Lamar Jackson or John Harbaugh?

Shaffer: If the Ravens fall short in the playoffs again, and their offense struggles again, I’d imagine Harbaugh would still feel more heat locally. But it’s Jackson who’s the face of this franchise. He doesn’t want to be a two-time MVP — maybe a three-time MVP — without a Super Bowl appearance. Jackson is acutely aware of his perception nationally. Stephen A. Smith won’t care if Zay Flowers was banged up, or if the pass rush was inconsistent, or if Justin Tucker missed a key kick. Playoff success is the barometer here. Harbaugh has a Super Bowl title; Jackson hasn’t gotten close to one yet.

Han: I think fans are more likely to call for Harbaugh’s job. At 1 Winning Drive, I don’t think his job is at stake anytime soon. The pressure comes more in the form of a collapsing window. All Jackson wants is a Super Bowl, but with his and several teammates’ salaries taking huge leaps in the next few years, his chances will get slimmer and slimmer. It’s hard to keep together a championship-caliber team year after year in a salary cap league, and if Jackson wants to add a ring, this may be his best chance.

Goon: As popular as it was to bag on Harbaugh early on this season, his playoff record (12-10) is not going to be the one raised throughout these playoffs. People already are talking about Jackson’s 2-4 mark, which desperately needs improvement for a quarterback of his caliber (especially if he wins a third MVP). Harbaugh has a Super Bowl ring, and his job security is as snug as anyone’s in the league. On the heels of his best passing season ever and with an ever-tightening salary cap because of his huge contract, Jackson may never get a better team around him in Baltimore than right now.

Who or what are the biggest X-factors in the Ravens’ playoff run?

Shaffer: Obviously, the Ravens need wide receiver Zay Flowers healthy to be at their best on offense. But the weather could be the AFC’s craziest variable. The early forecasts for this weekend show more snow on its way to Baltimore. If the Ravens beat Pittsburgh, they’d likely head to Orchard Park, New York, to face the Bills in below-freezing temperatures. And if the Ravens head to Arrowhead Stadium for the AFC championship game? Yep, you guessed it: more frigid, unpredictable winter weather.

Han: Jackson is the biggest (and most important) X-factor. The team rises and falls with him, and he has shown he can take over games. Through most of this season, he’s been consistent and outstanding, hence the MV3 conversations. But he also looked fantastic through most of last season and earned an MVP. Yet in the biggest moment, he was good not great against the Chiefs in the AFC championship. Already this season, we have seen that evil twin version of Jackson. He didn’t look like himself against the Steelers in Week 11. And to get to the Super Bowl, they have to go through the Steelers and, most likely, the Chiefs, teams Jackson has continuously struggled to best.

Goon: Given the state of the receiving corps, the Ravens have never needed the best version of Mark Andrews more. After last season’s injury, this season was a huge comeback for Jackson’s throwing partner. Losing Flowers for a game or more puts more pressure on Andrews to be the go-to receiver who can find seams downfield or grab contested jump balls. His 11 TDs this season were a new career high, helping power the NFL’s best red zone offense (74.2%). Andrews needs to be elite this postseason, too.

Which Ravens player or unit do you trust the most?

Shaffer: I think we’ll see a more confident, less erratic Jackson this month, but I’m not sure there are many units in the playoff field more trustworthy than the Ravens’ run defense. They lead the NFL in yards per carry allowed (3.6) and rushing yards per game allowed (80.1) and are top five in both success rate and FTN’s efficiency metric. Considering the Ravens’ potential playoff path — the Steelers want to run the ball, the Bills have a top-five rushing attack, the Chiefs are ramping up running back Isiah Pacheco — having a brick wall at the line of scrimmage could set up the pass rush and secondary for success.

Han: Adding on to what Jonas said, the run defense has been the one unit that has looked the same day in and day out. The secondary has been on a roller coaster. The pass rush has gone quiet at times. The receiving corps has had a few games with big drops. And let’s not get into special teams. The run defense has only allowed opposing offenses to rush for more than 100 yards five times this season, and they won four of those games. The one loss was to the NFL’s leading rusher, Eagles back Saquon Barkley. This will be big because the Steelers surpassed 100 yards in the teams’ two regular season matchups. Their passing game is struggling lately, so they will lean on the run.

Goon: The new piece actually might be the most trustworthy. Derrick Henry and the run game as a whole should be a foundation on which to build an effective postseason offense. Henry’s last two playoff games on worse teams weren’t great, but in his 2019 run (I know, I know, trigger warning), he averaged 5.4 yards per carry. This Ravens’ offensive line has been a key piece of the best yards-per-carry season ever. While the Steelers, Bills and Chiefs have all been pretty stout against the run, the Ravens have had big rushing games against two of those teams in wins already this season.

Which Ravens player or unit do you trust the least?

Shaffer: Over the past few weeks in Kansas City, we’ve seen how the arrival of one above-average wide receiver, former Raven Marquise “Hollywood” Brown, can make life easier for everyone else in the Chiefs’ offense. Now, as the Ravens prepare for life without Flowers, an actual Pro Bowl-level player, it’s fair to wonder how severe the trickle-down effects could be on their receiving corps. Is Rashod Bateman ready to be defended like a WR1? Can Nelson Agholor find his groove as a WR2? How much trust does Jackson have in the Ravens’ seldom-used wideouts? And how much can the Ravens’ talented tight end room do to help? It wouldn’t be a playoff run in Baltimore without questions about the Ravens’ weapons out wide.

Han: I remain worried about the field goal unit. Sure, Justin Tucker has made his last three field goal attempts, two from 50-plus yards, but I feel like that’s too small of a sample size to declare he’s fixed whatever was wrong. All three field goals came after the bye week, when he might have truly figured out a solution, but there have been four games since then, and the Ravens didn’t kick a field goal in two of them. As the Ravens saw in their 18-16 loss to the Steelers, when he missed two kicks, Tucker can have a huge impact on games. Between Tucker’s career-worst season and potentially severe weather, the Ravens may be on shaky ground if they can’t finish drives in the end zone.

Goon: Brandon Stephens has had some better games in recent weeks as the defense has improved on the whole. But we’ve just seen too many flags and too many catches in coverage to trust him against the league’s best receivers. He’s Pro Football Focus’ 95th-ranked corner out of 116. Pittsburgh will go after him this week with George Pickens and Pat Freiermuth. While Marlon Humphrey and Kyle Hamilton are among the league’s best playmakers in the secondary, every opponent knows Stephens is the weak link.