The Pittsburgh Steelers have been building their offense in a way counter to what most teams in the NFL are doing. Rather than trying to construct a high-flying offense featuring multiple talented wide receivers, they are trying to build a physical, run-first attack that hearkens back to football’s roots. CBS Sports’ Cody Benjamin put together a list of each contender’s red flag entering the 2024 season and dinged the Steelers for an “old-school offensive approach.”
“Russell Wilson and Justin Fields give them must-see appeal at quarterback. George Pickens is talented out wide. And yet, with Arthur Smith at the helm of the offense, are they going to be conservative and run-heavy?” Benjamin wrote. “The lack of proven top-tier running mates for Pickens may well demand it.”
There is little doubt that the Steelers are looking to run the ball early and often this season. The 2023 version of the Steelers ran the ball 49 percent of the time, the fifth-highest ratio in the league, according to Stathead. Arthur Smith’s Atlanta Falcons topped that with 49.6 percent of their offensive plays being runs last year.
That is nothing new for Smith. Over the last five seasons as an offensive coordinator and head coach, his offenses have placed fourth three times, third once, and second once. That peaked in 2022 with a 57.4-percent run ratio.
It isn’t exactly a huge shift for the Steelers, either, with them trending in that direction ever since Ben Roethlisberger retired. In his last season, the Steelers ran the ball just 38.2 percent of the time, which was the second least in the NFL.
They drafted Najee Harris in 2021 with the goal of restoring their identity as a run-first offense, but they didn’t have the offensive line to do so. Now they have three recent first- or second-round draft picks invested in the unit. With Smith calling the shots on offense, they could very well lead the league in their ratio of run plays this season.
The league has increasingly shifted toward passing over the last several years as the college game has shifted toward spread offenses, something that has been reflected by the high number of wide receivers, cornerbacks, and quarterbacks drafted in the first round as of late. As defenses get smaller and more athletic to counter the pass-heavy offenses of the NFL, it might be a strength rather than a red flag to go counter to the league with a run-heavy approach.
With one of the league’s best one-two punches at running back, the Steelers had the third-most rushing yards in the NFL starting in Week 9 of last season after they inserted first-round OT Broderick Jones into the starting lineup. It only makes sense to attempt to build off that success, and the addition of two mobile quarterbacks should only add to that identity. Mike Tomlin said it best – the Steelers want to “roll people” on offense.
