The offense for the Pittsburgh Steelers is still a work in progress, of that there is no doubt. We’re not just speaking of the typical development in the offseason that builds up to every year, but rather a necessary growth among players within a scheme that is still being fine-tuned.
The good news is, at least according to the person most responsible for managing it, things are going well on that front. Speaking to reporters yesterday, QB Kenny Pickett was pleased with how the changes that have been made in Matt Canada’s offense are coming to fruition on the practice field the past couple weeks.
“Coach Canada did a great job adding some things that we’re dialing up in practice”, he said, via the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette’s YouTube channel. “I feel like the things that we added are working really well out here and I’m glad that we have them in the system. We took some things out, so I feel like we ironed out all the things that we wanted to do”.
This is an important comment because it’s the first time that the Steelers have been able to fully implement and run the sorts of changes and adjustments that they’ve been talking about all offseason. In other words, it’s the first time they’ve gotten the chance to find out whether they would work. And apparently they’re working.
Players were talking about things being different for a while now. Back in June, for example, QB Mason Rudolph said that there were “plenty of new concepts” that he’s had to learn—significant since nobody on the roster should know them better.
Nobody is going into great detail right now about what’s different, for obvious reasons, and frankly, I can’t pretend that I’m at training camp to see things firsthand. Then again, we were talking about the offense looking different last June, too.
One thing that certainly has to be different this year is that the offense needs to be less simplistic. There were some necessary things that the Steelers had to do last year to accommodate the youth in the unit, particularly with a rookie starter under center who began the season as a backup.
Head coach Mike Tomlin had no trouble acknowledging that he shied away from attacking the deep portions of the field more than many thought that the Steelers should be doing, for example, due to their particular circumstances. “You’ve got to be mindful of getting him behind the chains and the collective absorbing of too much negativity when they’re young”, he said.
But I don’t think what we’re really talking about here is Kendrick Green playing fullback or Connor Heyward throwing passes. How evident will these differences be to the average fan watching at home? Well, I guess we’ll have to wait and see. There’s a game on this week.
