In the first six weeks of the 2023 season, the Pittsburgh Steelers have struggled mightily on offense. That much is certain.
Entering Sunday’s Week Seven matchup on the road against the Los Angeles Rams, the Steelers are 27th or worse in every single major offensive statistical category: points per game (15.8, 30th), yards per game (286.2, 30th), passing yards per game (187.8, 27th), and rushing yards per game (80.4, 30th).
It’s all a mess, made much worse by the fact that the Steelers don’t have an identity offensively.
In recent weeks, ESPN’s Dan Graziano stated that Pittsburgh’s offensive identity can’t be three-and-out, and second-year quarterback Kenny Pickett stated that the Steelers “clearly” don’t have one in late September.
Not much has changed since then to show that the Steelers have an offensive identity, at least publicly coming from the team and head coach Mike Tomlin.
During his weekly press conference last Tuesday, Tomlin stated that the team’s identity continues to evolve, which seems a bit concerning at this point in the season. But, speaking with Steelers.com’s Bob Labriola Sunday ahead of the matchup with the Rams, Tomlin said that he finds it pretty pointless to talk publicly about the team’s identity.
“It just means boxing yourself in. I don’t know why in today’s game would you talk openly in detail about your identity. All you’re doing is teeing up your intentions for your opponent. I understand the traditional component of the question, but it is somewhat of a misnomer in today’s game,” Tomlin said to Labriola, according to Steelers.com. “Guys like me are hesitant to answer in that truth, because it seems like I’m avoiding the question, but the reality is when people openly talk about their identity in 2023 it’s really making the sledding difficult for themselves. You better be multiple, you better be willing to take what structurally is given to you, or what matchups provide you.
“I think that’s the component of today’s game. The myriad of personnel changes on both sides of the ball, the specialization in our game, and the matchup components trying to get significant players in ideal circumstances really permeate the strategic component of our game today. And it’s less about this is how we do business.”
While Tomlin’s answer makes quite a bit of sense at face value, it underlines a significant issue with the Steelers: They don’t have an offensive identity regardless of Tomlin trying to cover that up with a sound answer.
Coming into the season, Pittsburgh wanted to play a legitimate style of bully ball. That much was made clear with the offseason additions of guard Isaac Seumalo in free agency, along with rookie left tackle Broderick Jones and rookie tight end Darnell Washington via the 2023 NFL Draft.
So far this season, the run game has been stuck in the mud, struggling significantly to get into gear. With the run game struggling, causing the offense to not have much balance, the passing game has been a mess, too.
Pittsburgh knows what it wants to be. Again, the offseason moves showed that. But the execution from the Steelers on the field to this point has caused them to come up woefully short of achieving that, leading to the concerns about a lack of identity.
The Steelers might be aiming to be multiple, but they are struggling to have even a singular identity on the offensive side of the football.
