The Pittsburgh Steelers began the 2022 season 1-1, with their one victory largely being a gift from their defense. That’s roughly where they are now, two games into the 2023 season, only they lost first and then won a week later. But that’s not the only difference C Mason Cole sees in the similarly struggling offenses year over year.
“It’s just different”, he said Wednesday in the locker room, according to Joe Rutter of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. “Last year, we didn’t know [our identity]. We didn’t know what we were going to be or how good we were going to be. This year, it feels like we know we can be really damn good”.
Well, confidence is one thing to have, at least, which is something that head coach Mike Tomlin did acknowledge was a concern, even if only one of many and not a paralyzing factor. This was an offense that was pretty much starting from scratch a year ago. At least going into this season, the Steelers had a blueprint.
And not as much turnover as they might have had otherwise. That included the return of four of their five starting offensive linemen, all of whom played every game and 1,000-plus offensive snaps in 2022. The only new presence there was Isaac Seumalo.
The running back room is more or less the same, where it matters. At wide receiver, Allen Robinson II is the only new piece, with Calvin Austin III having been around a year ago already. And then there is rookie TE Darnell Washington, who is arguably already a better blocker than any tight end on the roster from last season, replacing Zach Gentry.
The thing is, the Steelers had a top-10 offense in the second half of last season when you measure per-drive performance. They had fewer drives overall than most teams, which contributed to some of the lower scoring totals in their games, but their drives were otherwise efficient moving the football—even if sometimes at a snail’s pace.
There wasn’t much boom in that offense, but nor was there bust. They protected the football. They converted on possession downs. Outside of a need for more explosive plays, the only area in which they really stood to improve was in the red zone—which admittedly is no small thing.
On paper, this offense should be as good as last season’s group in the back half of the year and then some, with more big-play potential and better execution in the red zone. We’re not seeing that yet, unfortunately, but the ability is there. With nearly the same personnel, only improved, it would have to be.
We did get the big play this past week with WR George Pickens finding the end zone on a 71-yard touchdown, and I don’t think that will be the last of them, but there is so much room for improvement. I’m confident improvements will come. I just don’t know how long it will take.
