For many, the anticipation and excitement surrounding the Pittsburgh Steelers’ offense after a spectacular performance in the preseason is at an all-time high. Five drives for the starting offense, five touchdowns and a handful of explosive plays for the Black and Gold.
Coming out of Thursday night’s 24-0 win over the Atlanta Falcons in the preseason in which quarterback Kenny Pickett looked sharp again, completing 4-of-4 passes for 86 yards with a 33-yard strike to Diontae Johnson and a 35-yard throw to George Pickens, the Steelers offense looks poised to take a significant step forward in 2023.
ESPN’s Dan Graziano isn’t onboard just yet with the Steelers, in large part because he doesn’t want to buy any of the hype or excitement from preseason action.
Appearing on Get Up Friday morning with host Mike Greenberg, Graziano shot down some excitement, stating that basing it off of preseason action is always a mistake.
“So, I think there’s room for improvement and there’s reason to believe in the improvement. The Steelers feel like they’ve built them a better offensive line than they’ve had there in a while. It’s just, to base it all off preseason performances, I believe is always a mistake. We need to see it in real games against real starting defenses before we know for sure this is an offense that hasn’t been able to get off the ground the last couple years,” Graziano said, according to video of the segment via YouTube. “Matt Canada, the offensive coordinator embattled in Pittsburgh, the target of fans’ ire very often. Two years ago it was, well, Ben Roethlisberger has nothing left. Last year it was, well it was [Mitch] Trubisky and then Pickett’s a rookie, so this is the year.
“They need to do something on offense and specifically in the passing game to show that they’re on the right track, and yeah, it’s encouraging.”
A little bit of talking in a circle there from Graziano and forgetting his point. What are you gonna do?
That said, he raises a fair point regarding the Steelers’ offense. It’s the preseason.
On the five drives, Pittsburgh’s offense faced actual NFL starters just twice, with those two drives coming in the Week Two preseason win against the Buffalo Bills at Acrisure Stadium on Aug. 19. That accounted for just seven plays total.
Against the Falcons on Thursday night, it was against the backups with Pickett hooking up with Johnson and Pickens on the first drive for the explosive plays over cornerbacks that were battling for a roster spot in Atlanta.
It’s a fair caveat when discussing the Steelers performance offensively in the preseason.
That said, the production, the confidence and the camaraderie that the offense displayed on the five drives absolutely matters moving forward. This is a group that is truly believing in not only one another, but the offensive scheme overall. After years of slow, sluggish starts on offense too, the Steelers looked exceptionally sharp right away in all three preseason games.
That’s a big deal, too. They were ready to go from the jump and executed at a high level. That type of confidence and overall preparation can carry over into the season. It’s very encouraging, especially considering the type of offense that the Steelers displayed throughout last season, starting slow, scoring just 18.1 points per game, and scoring just 60 total points in the first quarter of games in 2022.
It was just the preseason, but the Steelers showed a lot of things offensively to be very encouraged about.
