There have been a lot of common themes tying the Pittsburgh Steelers’ offseason together. Especially down the stretch run leading up to the regular season, I think the prevailing theme on offense has been the collective belief in what they are doing.
Numerous players—even some who didn’t end up making the team—have use the term “bought in” to describe the difference in the unit from last season to now. They were still trying to figure out who they were going deep into last season. Now they know who they are. It’s just a matter of showing it. And they believe they will.
“I can confidently say we’re way ahead of where we were a year ago. I think everyone’s bought in”, QB Kenny Pickett told reporters yesterday, via the team’s website. “We all understand what we’re trying to do. We all love the game plan. We’re all bought in. That’s the start, and then we’ve got to go out there and do it. I think we’re definitely way ahead in that aspect”.
Of course, the circumstances were very different last year. Pickett was a rookie backup to Mitch Trubisky, who was signed as a free agent as a possible bridge starter after QB Ben Roethlisberger retired. Now Pickett is the sole captain on offense and the unquestioned leader of the team.
They felt tangible success down the stretch last year, going 7-2 after the bye, so they have a taste of what they can do when everybody does buy in and puts their heads down and gets to work on making the offense as good as it can be.
And they made substantial improvements from a year ago, much of it just from internal growth. But they’ve also reinforced key areas with additions like G Isaac Seumalo, TE Darnell Washington, and WR Allen Robinson II, not to mention the debut of WR Calvin Austin III after missing his rookie season in 2022.
This will be the first year of the true Kenny Pickett offense, after all. Last year, they went into the regular season building the game plan around Trubisky and his preferences because he was the starter. He functioned throughout the offseason as the starter, all of his reps coming with the first-team unit.
Naturally, everyone wants to get a sample of a product before buying, so it was important for this 2023 Steelers team that they got to feel the success of the second-half run a year ago. I think that is a big reason why so many players are talking about the difference in the buy-in now.
Because as has been acknowledged, offensive coordinator Matt Canada’s game plan isn’t really going to be very different. It’s just going to be tweaked more by Pickett to cater to his preferences versus Trubisky’s. The difference is knowing it can work.
