Last season, the Pittsburgh Steelers weren’t exactly a juggernaut in the red zone. The team struggled mightily there to start the 2022 campaign, many drives falling short of the end zone, resulting in field goal attempts or missed scoring opportunities completely. The Steelers scored touchdowns on just 48 percent of their red zone trips prior to the bye week, and that total did trend up to end the season.
Still, the expectation is that Pittsburgh’s red zone offense is much better than it was a season ago in 2023. They have QB Kenny Pickett heading into his second season along with a beefed-up offensive line and an improved skill-position group around him. However, when asked if the offense will be more positioned for success in the red zone this season compared to 2022, HC Mike Tomlin didn’t exactly inspire a lot of confidence with his response during his press conference to kick off training camp.
“I have no idea,” Tomlin said Wednesday via the team’s YouTube channel. “We are here to kind of discover these things. Seriously. I think sometimes when you have too hardcore of a plan in an environment like this, you miss something. And so, we are here to grow and develop individually and collectively, and when you’re in my position, you better be open to being pleasantly surprised or disappointed, to be quite honest with you.”
There is a lot of honesty coming from Tomlin’s response. Prior to the start of every season, likely every NFL team can have some positive feelings of confidence in its respective offenses and its ability to produce. However, when the bullets start flying, you tend to figure out pretty quick if those feelings have legit support based on results on the field or not.
The Steelers probably felt pretty decent heading into last season with the offense they assembled, only to see it struggle at points throughout the 2022 campaign. Having coached the team since 2007, Tomlin must remain steady and even keel on what the results may be. Hopefully, the result in 2023 will have Tomlin pleasantly surprised in Pittsburgh’s success in the red zone relative to where his inner expectations may be. With the pads coming on in just a few days and preseason action on the horizon, we will soon find out.
