It’s only a game. Preseason, at that. And the Tampa Bay Buccaneers didn’t play all their best guys. But all you can go off of is what actually happened in the Pittsburgh Steelers’ preseason debut Friday night. And what happened looked a lot different than the 2022 regular season. Not just with the overall production, an opening-drive touchdown (which happened only twice all last season), or the 27 points they put up but the manner in which they scored.
What were the Steelers’ most pressing offensive problems a year ago?
1. No YAC
2. No big plays
Of course, those go hand-in-hand. More YAC almost certainly means more big plays. No team had worse YAC per reception in 2022 than the Pittsburgh Steelers. No wide receiver in football had worse YAC per reception than George Pickens. And the Steelers finished 2022 with only 44 explosive pass plays (completions of 20-plus yards), which ranked in the bottom-third of the league.
If Friday is any indication, that’s going to change in 2023.
Kenny Pickett’s 33-yard touchdown to Pickens was beautiful on so many levels. Let me count the ways…
1. It Beat Anything 2022 Did
Again, preseason. I know. But the 33-yard score was longer than any regular season touchdown Pittsburgh had over the entire 2022 regular season. It’s equal parts encouraging and depressing. The Steelers may want to be a run-oriented offense this season but they need to complement that with a big-play pass game. There were signs of that Friday.
2. George Pickens Can Run More Than One Route (And Do Something After It)
Pickens was a one-trick pony last season. A very good pony, call him a unicorn, but he was a vertical guy and that was it. The eye test and the data back that up. Go back to the play. Watch Pickens beat press coverage, cross the corner’s face, and win on the slant. Once he pulls the ball in, he’s getting vertical. Then he shakes the safety, cuts inside, and gets more YAC here than he did at almost anytime last year. That’s 21 yards after the catch.
It’s the top thing I’ve noted about Pickens since Day One of training camp. The viral catches are awesome, but it’s been just as exciting to watch him gain separation on a 10-yard curl or here, win on a simple slant, are just as thrilling. It’ll make Pickens a complete receiver and the key to taking his game to the next level, to ascend to the elite receiver he’s capable of becoming.
3. Pickett Going Through His Progressions
Something we just wrote about on the site, though in a slightly different context. The end zone view provides a great look of what Pickett was seeing. On his drop, he looks left and doesn’t see anything there. He comes off his first read and scans across the field to Pickens as the next part of his progression. Eyes and feet are connected and the ball is on the money. Pickett had some trouble with ball placement on short/intermediate throws last season (though slants were less of a problem), but this allows for the YAC.
Ball thrown in stride and away from the cornerback, allowing Pickens to keep running instead of slowing down for the catch. He does the rest.
Great rep all around. Last season, Pickett may not have gone through his reads or been that accurate on the ball. Pickens wouldn’t have been running that route, let alone taking it to the house. Simply, this play doesn’t occur in 2022. Now, it can be a weapon in 2023.
The other play is WR Calvin Austin III’s 67-yard touchdown. This one requires less explanation, though it’s just as tantalizing. Fast guy running fast, Austin burns the right cornerback and Mason Rudolph, to his credit, throws a beautiful deep ball down the sideline that hits Austin in stride. Hard to miss with a 4.32 dude but Rudolph’s deep ball has always been his best asset, going back to his wide-open Big 12 days at Oklahoma State where airing it out was the norm.
Take a look at the play.
But there is a coaching point here. When hired in 2022, we went through a coaching clinic of WRs Coach Frisman Jackson. And he had a teaching point for the right way to run a fade/go-route. Here’s what he said, which we wrote:
“They want to look for the football as soon as they release off the line of scrimmage. We tell our guys that a go route is 40 to 44 yards downfield. I’m telling our guys to dig. I’m not looking back, I’m digging, I’m running for 20 to 22 yards.”
Then look back for the ball and “look to the sky” instead of looking back.”
Austin doesn’t look back immediately. The corner does. Austin keeps digging, showcasing his speed and blazing past the corner who is now out of phase, and he beats him downfield. Austin does look back a bit more than “looking to the sky” but he’s still able to maintain speed while the corner hopelessly dives and misses. Touchdown, Austin. Touchdown, Steelers.
Austin brings an element to the offense that didn’t exist a year ago. While 67-yard touchdowns can’t be expected every week, the fact he’s capable of this will put defenses on notice. The 49ers will be watching this play as they prepare for Week One. Teams will have to play more off-coverage, play more two-high, and if they don’t, he’ll make them pay.
Immediately, Pittsburgh’s offense is showing its capable of doing things it wasn’t a year ago. There are still many steps to prove it, they must do it when the games count, but there’s no question their ability is there. Now, they just have to keep executing.
