Steelers 2023 Offensive Charting – Final Season Results

The 2023 season is now complete, and it is time once again to look at the offensive charting we do throughout the season. This will be a sampling of the data to look at things like personnel-grouping usage along with run and pass statistics.

The article for the first eight games of the season can be found here.

Plays per game through the first eight games was 62.4. Over the last 10 weeks, the team averaged 71.7 plays per game.

The Steelers ran the ball 320 times and 389 drop backs, which includes sacks, scrambles, and spikes. There were three plays aborted by quarterback fumble/bad snaps, nine kneel downs and 11 plays stopped by pre-snap penalties.

Personnel Groupings

Here is a look at the groupings for the first eight games and then the rest of the season.

The biggest change was the drop in 11 personnel (1 running back, 1 tight end) and the increase in 13 personnel (1 running back, 3 tight ends). The use of 21 personnel (2 running backs, 1 tight end) tripled in the second half of the year.

The use of multiple tight ends increased from 12.9 times per game to 18.1 times per game.

Quarterbacks

Injuries and level of play at the position led to all three quarterbacks on the roster getting some run. In total, the team threw for a paltry 13 touchdown in 2023. Kenny Pickett had six in 12 games, Mitchell Trubisky had four in five games and Mason Rudolph had five in five games.

Trubisky led the team in interceptions with five followed by Pickett with four. Rudolph threw one interception, in the Wild Card game.

• Play-action – Through the first eight games, the Steelers were 26-of-39 for 285 yards and two touchdowns. They also scrambled twice for seven yards and was sacked once. In the final 10 games, the team was 28-of-41 for 308 yards and one interception. There were also four sacks and seven scrambles for 36 yards.
• Facing a Blitz – In the first half of the season, the Steelers were 30-of-59 for 447 yards, three touchdowns and two interceptions. There were four sacks for -36 yards. From Week 10 on they were 47-of-74 for 479 yards with three touchdowns and one interception. Two of those touchdowns were thrown by Rudolph. There were seven sacks and two scrambles for 13 yards.
• No-huddle – Eight carries for 22 yards and 18-of-22 for 154 yards and one interception in the first eight games. Thirteen carries for 31 yards and 15-of-20 for 84 yards with two sacks, one scramble and one spike after that.
• Pre-snap Movement of any kind – This includes any shift or motion. The number went from 33.6 times per game to 44.4 times per game.
• In Motion at the Snap – The first half of the season included 105 plays with the Steelers running the ball 65 percent of the time. Since Week 10, there were 166 plays with a man in motion at the snap. They ran the ball 71.7 percent of the time.
• Empty formation – From going 9-of-19 for 63 yards to 25-of-30 for 246 yards with one interception. There were also four sacks and two scrambles for 15 yards.

Where Do They Throw It?

In the first half of the season, Pickett threw the ball outside the numbers 63.6 percent of the time. Let’s see how each quarterback did over the last 10 games.

Pickett continued to throw outside the hashes at 62.5 percent. Trubisky favored the right side with 57.3 percent of his throws going there. Rudolph was more balanced with 47.8 percent to the left and 42.7 percent to the right.

Here is a look at the depth of target.

Trubisky was not afraid to let it fly, leading the way with 23 percent of his throws going to the deep areas. Short left and short right were the highest percentage of throws. The increase in throws to the middle for the field (short area) went from 7.8 percent with Pickett to over 20 percent with Rudolph at the helm.

Running Backs

The Steelers had a nice backfield tandem this season, and they improved as the season progressed. In the first half of the season, Najee Harris had 30 more touches than Jaylen Warren. In the second half that gap increased to 183 for Harris and 135 for Warren.

If you want to look at the yards-per-touch comparison, Harris was 4.2 yards per touch in the first eight games and he maintained that number with 4.23 in the final 10 games.

Warren started the season with a 5.55 average and in the latter half of the season that number dipped slightly to 5.42.

Both players’ average was nearly the same on receptions with 5.25 for Harris and 5.21 for Warren. On the ground over the second half, Warren had the advantage, 5.5 yards per carry to 4.13.

Harris

Warren

Harris and Warren were the only running backs to get a carry this year and neither of them caught a touchdown pass this season.

Run Direction

For Harris, 114 of his carries (69.3 percent) came between the guards although his best numbers were to the left tackle side.

Warren’s carries were very balanced with between 14 and 18 carries in six of the seven directions.

Wide Receivers

It was basically a two-man show this season, Pittsburgh getting minimal production from any receiver not named Diontae Johnson or George Pickens. Changing the offensive coordinator seemed to uplift the tandem in the second half of the season.

Here is a look at where they were targeted.

Pickens led the wide receivers in targets, receptions, yards, yards per reception, touchdowns (tied with Johnson), first downs and yards per target.

Pickens and Johnson had only two drops each for the season. That’s going to be a problem for the “DJ drops the ball too much” crowd.

Allen Robinson II finished fourth on the team in targets (49) and receptions (34).

Calvin Austin III had 28 balls thrown his way in the first eight games and just eight in the final 10 games. The Steelers still aren’t sure how to use him yet. He also had 11 carries on the year for 57 yards and a touchdown. Just four of those runs came in the second half of the season.

Tight Ends

This group as a whole was underutilized throughout the season. Pat Freiermuth missed five games and still easily led the group in receptions, targets, yards, and touchdowns.

The tight end group had a total of two touchdown receptions in 2023. None after Week Three.

Connor Heyward doubled his targets from a year ago and doubled his receptions from 12 to 24. The bad part of that is his yards only went up 22 yards from 151 in 2022 to 167 in 2023.

Darnell Washington looked like he could be used as a weapon in the red zone. His lone target in the red zone came on pass from Heyward. He did improve to five receptions in the last 10 games compared to just two in the first eight.

Offensive Line

This group was once again a generally healthy group. There wasn’t a lot of missed time by any of the players.

Mason Cole, Dan Moore Jr., and Broderick Jones played every offensive snap in the final 10 games. James Daniels came out for one victory formation snap against Baltimore.

Offensive line snaps

Washington lined up at left tackle once and right tackle four times when the Steelers went with an unbalanced line by shifting a tackle to the opposite side of the line.

Penalties