The Pittsburgh Steelers offense looks a lot different at Saint Vincent College in Latrobe, Pa., than it did in 2022. QB Kenny Pickett is the unquestioned starter, the offensive line has seen additions in free agency and the draft, and the wide receiver and tight end rooms look different.
So when WR Allen Robinson II was asked by the media about the importance of the offense gelling early in camp, he had some thoughts to share from his nine seasons in the NFL.
“Whenever you can kind of get in the groove and find things early, I think that’s always beneficial,” Robinson said, according to Steelers.com. “You start to get the ball rolling early, guys are able to figure themselves out, guys are able to figure others out… I feel like for us as an offense, we had a solid first day. I thought for us it was for the most part it was clean, which is what you want to see coming into training camp. Things being clean, guys being where they need to be, and things like that. As you continue to progress through camp, you continue to improve and you continue to stack those blocks.”
There’s no question that the offense getting on the same page and clicking sooner rather than later is beneficial. Pittsburgh struggled early last season, partly because of T.J. Watt’s injury, but also because the offense was frankly not good. QB Mitch Trubisky, who won the quarterback competition in camp, was benched for Pickett at halftime of Week Four against the New York Jets. Pickett, then just a rookie, had quite understandable ups and downs like any rookie, and they were exacerbated by not getting much-needed training camp reps with the first-team offense.
It doesn’t get much harder schedule-wise when the Steelers welcome the San Francisco 49ers to town for Week One. The 49ers allowed the second-fewest yards in the league in 2022, only four more than the Buffalo Bills. Their 5.0 yards per play allowed was tied for third-best in the league, only behind the Jets and the Philadelphia Eagles who each allowed 4.8 yards per play. The 49ers only allowed 20 passing touchdowns all season, tied for fifth-fewest, and 11 rushing touchdowns, tied for eighth-fewest.
If the Steelers want to erase the bad taste of the early-season struggles of 2022 from their collective mouths, the offense will need a strong camp to be ready for a big test to start 2023. As Robinson said, they need to stack those blocks, building on each day’s successes and growing as a unit.
