PITTSBURGH — To win Super Bowl LVII, the Kansas City Chiefs needed to rating 38 factors — a mark they eclipsed 3 times within the common season — to get by a Philadelphia Eagles staff that racked up 35 factors.
The Pittsburgh Steelers, in contrast, by no means scored greater than 30 in any recreation in the course of the 2022 marketing campaign.
Not solely that, however the Steelers scored 29 touchdowns final season, tied for second fewest within the NFL. In the meantime, the Chiefs and Eagles doubled that output with 61 and 59 touchdowns, respectively.
The Steelers aren’t the Chiefs or the Eagles. That is not going to alter earlier than the 2023 season begins in seven months, and it is doubtless the Steelers won’t imminently rework into the type of high-flying offense that has develop into extra prevalent within the final a number of years.
But when there is a lesson to be discovered from the 2022 playoffs, it is that the Steelers want to attain extra factors to maneuver from a fringe playoff staff to a stable contender as they proceed to evolve within the post-Ben Roethlisberger period.
“We talked in regards to the areas of enchancment, and I believe there are some good ones,” Steelers president Artwork Rooney II mentioned not too long ago, “however we did not rating sufficient factors is the underside line. Specifically, not nice red-zone effectivity. So, I believe these are a pair issues that I’d establish that we clearly need to get higher at.”
The Steelers completed the 12 months ranked twenty second in purple zone effectivity, scoring touchdowns on simply 51.92% of their journeys. That rating barely dipped from the 2021 marketing campaign by which the Steelers scored touchdowns 54.72% of the time.
“That is type of the ultimate frontier,” offensive coordinator Matt Canada mentioned of the purple zone in Week 17. “We have been speaking about that. … We get into that space, we have got to go rating factors. It is acquired to occur. We will discuss it, rep it, we’re definitely doing these issues. Being younger shouldn’t be an excuse. None of that. We have got to supply these, issues need to occur, however I believe we’re getting nearer. We’re making extra of them, however we simply have gotten to get all of them.”
The Steelers’ future offensive success is not nearly changing within the purple zone. It is also about how they’re getting there. The Steelers averaged 9.3 performs per scoring drive (landing or discipline aim), the very best fee by any staff prior to now 45 seasons. Against this, the Chiefs averaged 7.6 performs per scoring drive within the Tremendous Bowl, whereas the Eagles averaged 10.2. Although the Eagles dominated the time of possession 35:47-24:13, the Chiefs’ capacity to attain quick coupled with their offensive effectivity within the second half helped engineer the comeback victory.
For sooner scoring drives, the Steelers want extra chunk performs. Final season, they ranked tied for twenty first with 97 explosive performs, which embody rushes of a minimum of 10 yards or passes of a minimum of 20. Whereas the Steelers improved their speeding offense to sixteenth within the league with 121.9 speeding yards per recreation, up from 91.1 a 12 months in the past, the passing offense took a step again after the retirement of a future Corridor of Fame quarterback.
The staff additionally traded away yet another veteran receiver in 2020 second-round decide Chase Claypool simply previous to the deadline in alternate for the Chicago Bears’ 2023 second-round decide, No. 32 total. The Steelers had been twenty fourth within the league in passing yards per recreation, averaging 200.6 yards, a dip from their 2021 common of 221 yards per recreation. The staff additionally scored solely 12 passing touchdowns to 16 speeding.
“I believe one of the best groups can do each,” Rooney mentioned. “Being a staff that is powerful to defend means you are able to do a variety of issues proper. I believe what we’re in search of is to be balanced. I believe we have to enhance on the passing recreation for positive. We have to see extra yards after catch from our receivers. Clearly, we have to be higher within the purple zone. So, positively some locations we have to enhance on to attain extra factors is the underside line.”
In 2022, with a younger core of gamers like Pickett and vast receiver George Pickens, the Steelers opted for a extra conservative recreation plan than in years previous, prioritizing ball safety over splash performs. However the Steelers will enter 2023 with Pickett put in because the beginning quarterback for a full offseason and a younger core of gifted playmakers round him. With gamers like Pickens, Diontae Johnson, Pat Freiermuth and Najee Harris on the roster, coupled with the 7-2 end after the bye week, there’s purpose for offensive optimism.
“The best way that we completed the season, the best way we got here out of the bye week, I believe we needs to be actually pleased with ourselves,” Harris mentioned after the Week 18 win towards the Browns. “We will simply see how our future is. We’re younger, however we’re additionally actually gifted, and I believe that for us to come back collectively by means of all that adversity that we had early on within the 12 months, for us to complete out the season the best way we did, man, that needs to be motivation for us. We needs to be hungry for subsequent 12 months.”
The staff prioritized continuity for Pickett and the offense in retaining Canada for an additional season, believing that his offense can evolve in its third season after back-to-back years working in situations that did not enable Canada to completely open up his playbook.
It is a gamble, particularly as division rival Baltimore announced the hire of former Georgia offensive coordinator Todd Monken to guide the Ravens’ offense on Tuesday. Monken guided aggressive offenses with the back-to-back nationwide championship Bulldogs (501.1 yards, 40.7 factors per recreation in 2022) and in earlier NFL stints as OC of the Browns (career-high 3,827 passing yards for Baker Mayfield in 2019) and the Buccaneers (No. 1 in NFL whole offense in 2018).
The Steelers are an old-school group, usually sticking to the ideas of defensive smash mouth, trench-warfare soccer. However the NFL is shifting away from that type, trending extra towards a pass-happy league with its greatest groups amassing offensive ability gamers like infinity stones.
The Steelers aren’t usually a company that jumps on a brand new development, however this one could be right here to remain. Are the Steelers?