Former Pittsburgh Steelers running back Jerome Bettis has said that the team have questions to answer heading into the 2013 NFL season.

The Steelers failed to make the playoffs last year, as eventual Super Bowl winners the Baltimore Ravens won the AFC North, while second-placed Cincinnati Bengals secured a wildcard spot.

Bettis, who won the Super Bowl with the Steelers in the 2005 season, told NFL.com: "The question mark in the division is the Steelers. How will they perform? Will they be able to run the football? Will the defense be able to stay intact?

"They've got some questions that need to be answered, so right now if I had to step out of my body and give a prediction I'd say the edge goes to Cincinnati, then Baltimore, then Pittsburgh, then Cleveland.

"[The Bengals] still have to learn how to win. They don't know how to win yet. And I think that's the one Achilles' heel if you had to think of anything, that's going to be the Achilles' heel, they really don't know how to win a big game."

Bettis spent 10 seasons with the Steeers before his retirement at the end of the 2005 campaign.