Former Pittsburgh Steelers running back Jerome Bettis has a solution to fix the team’s offense. Bettis, who ran for over 10,000 yards and was a two-time All-Pro during his tenure with the Steelers, told Heavy that he thinks adding a fullback will make the difference for the offense.
“My focus would be to add a full back, play power football and force teams to commit that eighth guy in the box,” Bettis told Heavy’s Dave Holcomb . “Now, the landscape looks so much easier for my wide receivers,” Bettis said.
He thinks that adding a fullback will give the Steelers more opportunities to utilize play-action.
“I’ve got two dynamic wide receivers and a really good tight end. I want to utilize that. So, I would shrink the field. I would go full back in, power football, play-action pass.”
Pittsburgh does have Connor Heyward capable of playing fullback, and he’s really the only player on the active roster who could slide into that role. They have Jack Colletto on the practice squad who is a fullback, but I doubt that Colletto will come up and make an impact outside of an injury to Heyward. Heyward’s played 12 snaps in the backfield this season, per PFF, and Bettis clearly wants to see that number climb. Heyward has one carry for zero yards this year.
But Bettis doesn’t see that as Pittsburgh’s only issue. He put some blame on the offensive line and the running backs themselves for missing holes. “It’s a combination of the offensive line hasn’t been playing that great. From a running perspective, the guys are not all the way there,” Bettis said. “I’ve seen them miss some holes a couple times.”
Both Jaylen Warren and Najee Harris have had flashes, but neither has been consistently good enough to show they can lead the Steelers ground attack this season. Pittsburgh has just two games with over 100 yards on the ground, coming in a Week Three win against the Las Vegas Raiders and a Week Four loss against the Houston Texans, with a lot of those yards coming late with the game already decided.
With the Steelers’ passing offense under QB Kenny Pickett not looking like anything special so far, the ground game has to find a way to get going after the bye week. Last year, the ground game opened up post-bye, and if the same thing happens this year, Pittsburgh’s offense should be alright. The ground game will open up everything else on offense and give more opportunities for Pickett. Maybe the solution is heavier usage of Heyward at fullback, like Bettis thinks. We’ll find out next week what tweaks Pittsburgh’s made to improve their offense
