Along every step of the journey this offseason, the Pittsburgh Steelers left their trail of breadcrumbs leading to their plans for the 2023 season. Run the ball. Stop the run. Play physical in all phases. That can take this roster pretty far. But can it go far enough?
ESPN analyst Louis Riddick doesn’t think so. Without the explosion element of the passing game, he said yesterday on the Rich Eisen Show, there’s only far the Steelers can go this year—and thanks to their brutal division this year, that’s not very far.
“It’s offensively, can they be more explosive?”, he said. “Kenny [Pickett] can’t be averaging six yards per attempt, not in the AFC. Not with the long-range bombers they got in that conference. So if they can do that, then Mike [Tomlin] doesn’t have to overcoach the team and have to be perfect on everything and make great, timely calls all the time just for them to be in it”.
Many credit the 2019 and 2022 seasons to be some of the best coaching jobs of Tomlin’s tenure—years in which they went 8-8 and 9-8, respectively, coming up just shy of reaching the postseason. In both years, he did so with limited resources in the passing game, with 2019 being the year QB Ben Roethlisberger’s elbow retired.
Last year was the transition year after the rest of Roethlisberger’s body and mind retired, starting out with Mitch Trubisky under center before Tomlin yanked him out of the lineup in the middle of Week Four in favor of Pickett, whose inexperience working with his targets often showed on the field for most of the year.
Because of that, it’s imperative that Pickett and the passing game is able to take a major step forward in 2023, particularly in their vertical capabilities, as a means of being able to stay step-for-step with the big offenses of the AFC, from the Cincinnati Bengals and the Kansas City Chiefs to the Miami Dolphins, the Buffalo Bills, and, quite possibly, the New York Jets.
“Philosophically, structurally, offensively”, Riddick said, “if they can’t bomb, they can’t get you down the field and have to go seven, eight, nine, 10 plays, 60-70 yards all the time—if they can’t do that, they’ll never be able to compete, even in their own division”.
Even if they were to escape the AFC North’s gauntlet with the Bengals on top and the Baltimore Ravens and Cleveland Browns looking significantly improved, they’ll still need the firepower to try to get out of the conference. “These teams (will) light you sky-high, man”, he said of the Chiefs and Bills of the world.
The Steelers scored at least 30 points—exactly 30 points in this case—just once last season, and that was in a loss to the Bengals. Even in 2021, their only 30-plus-point game came in the form of a 41-37 loss to the Los Angeles Chargers.
You’re not going to be able to stifle every potent offense with your pass rush and this secondary, a mixture of the young and the old. And even Tomlin’s coaching job won’t carry him through to the finish line if this offense can’t take off. Nobody wins anymore without the deep pass.
