The Pittsburgh Steelers are making their offensive linemen happy this offseason. Some of them more than others, perhaps, while drafting certain players’ replacements. But the way they are tailoring this offense caters to what they want to do, according to Brooke Pryor.
“Talking with those guys, the o-linemen were telling me last week, like, ‘We are excited. This is our kind of offense. This is a dream. We have more fun in a run scheme’”, the ESPN reporter said on the This Is Football podcast yesterday. Linemen all around the league, not just on the Steelers, usually prefer to run block over pass protection.
“They’re like, ‘We don’t enjoy doing that. We’ll do it, obviously, but we want to get down and dirty in the trenches and bulldoze the way for Najee Harris and Jaylen Warren to eat’”, Pryor said of the Steelers linemen that she spoke to.
The preference for run blocking over pass protection is simple. Pass protection is largely passive, while run blocking is active. As a run blocker, your job is to move a man from Point A to Point B. In pass protection, you are trying to prevent someone else from reaching Point B. You dictate the action much more as a run blocker.
“I think that is why Arthur Smith ultimately got the job”, Pryor said. “The Steelers at their core are a team that wants to be down and dirty. They want to push the ball in your face, and they want to win by time of possession”.
The Steelers finished the 2023 season ranking in the top 10 in rushing attempts. They ranked much higher than ninth in the second half of the season, however. Indeed, they were one of the hottest rushing teams in the league over the final eight or nine weeks.
Since then, they have hired Smith as their new offensive coordinator, who consistently has top rushing offenses. They drafted OT Troy Fautanu in the first round and C Zach Frazier in the second. While they retained offensive line coach Pat Meyer, they are now working in Smith’s scheme.
The one question that Pryor has is about the quarterback position. She talked about how the team is predicated upon the quarterbacks just doing their job and making few mistakes. She argues that Russell Wilson and Justin Fields are not the ideal quarterbacks for that system, calling it an “arranged marriage”, and saying it’s a good thing they have training camp to figure it all out.
One thing the Steelers already loved was the running backs they had to block for. Particularly Jaylen Warren, all linemen love blocking for backs who hit the holes when they’re supposed to. But both backs are also capable of breaking tackles and making their linemen look good.
The Steelers laid the groundwork for this grand scheme of building around the running game. The offensive linemen are like pigs in slop over it, but only time will tell if it actually works.
