With former Pittsburgh Steelers OC Matt Canada out the door, the offense now will turn to the combination of QB Coach Mike Sullivan and RB Coach Eddie Faulkner to engineer an offense to get Pittsburgh out of the bottom of the barrel of the league when it comes to generating yards and putting points on the board.
The first step is to get second-year QB Kenny Pickett going. The young passer has regressed in 2023, looking like he’s taken a step back compared to the guy we saw at the end of his rookie season. Tony Racioppi has been in charge of Pickett’s development over the years, having been his personal quarterback coach. Racioppi appeared on the Fan Morning Show to talk about Pittsburgh’s transition at offensive coordinator and was asked what he would specifically implement offensively to help Pickett turn around his play with seven games left to go.
“He’s always been really good under center in the play-action game, and I would like to see that more,” Racioppi said on The Fan Morning Show. “I mean the boot game is there obviously because of his athleticism. I’d like to see more of that because he throws the ball so well in the run. He always has. But also the straight drop-back play action-game with the posts, the deep overs. And at the end of the day, we need more chunk plays. We need more 20 to 25 [yards] or more pass plays in the passing game. And I think because of that, you’re gonna see more points.”
When it comes to straight play action, Pittsburgh’s offense featured very little of it under Matt Canada. When it was utilized, the route concepts lacked variety. Canada often would resort to all go-routes with the receivers pushing down the field, having no one there to attack the intermediate part of it. One of Pickett’s best attributes coming out of college was his ability to execute the play-action passing game, Pitt getting him on the move on roll outs, with Pickett able to deliver the ball effectively while on the run.
Racioppi was also asked about the middle of the field and why it was seldom attacked the last several years under Canada. Racioppi responded that it tends to be a more dangerous part of the field with more defenders often in that location but added that Pittsburgh shouldn’t be deterred from going there as we’ve seen Pickett get the job done over the middle of the field before.
“At the end of the day, we all know that’s what we’re kind of missing,” Racioppi said. “We need to attack the middle of the field and we have the kind of guys that do it with, with George [Pickens] running the digs and obviously having Pat [Freiermuth] back is that big body tight end running the seams, running the benders, and the throws that he hit last year at the end of the year… one of his best throws last year was, was that Ravens game.”
The throw that Racioppi is referring to dates back to last season in Week 17 when Pickett completed a shot to WR Steven Sims over the middle in the fourth quarter, Pittsburgh ultimately winning the game with a walk-off touchdown pass from Pickett to RB Najee Harris. You see Pickett layer the pass perfectly, fitting it between the corner and safety to get the chunk play and put Pittsburgh in scoring range.
There are plenty of ways that Pittsburgh can go about this transition at offensive coordinator, but the best course of action at this juncture would be to play to Pickett’s strengths as a passer. Allow him to operate in a more free-flowing offense rather something that was so rigid and constricted like Canada’s scheme. Utilizing the middle of the field and using more play-action/roll-out passes is a great place to start. With Sullivan now calling the plays, we’ll soon see if he structures an offense that better suits his young quarterback starting this Sunday against Cincinnati.
