It’s no secret the Pittsburgh Steelers’ offense struggled in the red zone in 2022. The team as a whole wasn’t great, as it converted just under 52 percent of red zone trips into touchdowns, which ranked 22nd in the NFL. What might be more concerning for 2023 is QB Kenny Pickett’s performance in the red zone.
Let’s start with the good. Pickett attempted 47 passes in the red zone last season and only threw one interception. Not a bad rate, especially for a rookie quarterback. He also ran for three red-zone touchdowns. Despite not being known as too much of a runner, he can do enough to at least keep a red-zone defense honest.
That’s about where the good ends. Pickett was one of the least efficient quarterbacks in the red zone last season. Among the 32 quarterbacks who attempted 30 or more red-zone passes last season, his 42.6 percent completion rate was ahead of only former Las Vegas Raiders QB Derek Carr (and even this was just by 0.2 percent). While this represents a larger problem with the team, he was also sacked five times, which was just one below the league lead, despite him not playing the full season.
While one approach to fixing this issue is to be more efficient in the red zone, Pickett offered an alternative approach: avoiding the red zone altogether. He shared his thoughts on this in a SiriusXM NFL Radio interview with hosts Pat Kirwan and Jim Miller.
“We wanna hit the intermediate windows where I’m putting the ball out front and those guys are doing their thing with the ball in their hands,” Pickett said. “That’s something that we need to get better at [and] I think that’ll really take our offense to the next level. You’re gonna see less red-zone opportunities when you’re just taking those things to the house instead of having so many goal-line or, or red-zone opportunities. That’s the next step for us to put a lot of points on the board right there.”
Pickett only posted 6.2 yards per attempt last season, a number that will need to go up this season. It doesn’t seem like a potential increase will come from huge plays, as he only had one completion of 40-plus yards last season. However, he did have 28 plays of 20-plus yards, and this seems to be what he is referring to here.
He’s never had the biggest arm in the world, so Pickett has had to adapt throughout his career. Giving the offense a breather, and not putting himself and his offense in so many difficult red-zone situations could be huge for his development in Year Two. Let’s hope the team can leapfrog the end zone quite a few times in 2023.
