When the Pittsburgh Steelers brought in Arthur Smith as their new offensive coordinator this offseason, most people assumed they were doubling down on the run game as the focus of their offense. And that’s true. They have the second-most rushing attempts in the NFL this season with 479. They are also just outside the top 10 in terms of yards with 1,890.
So opposing defenses know that the Steelers will be pounding the rock with running backs Najee Harris and Jaylen Warren. That’s what sticks out to Kansas City Chiefs LB Nick Bolton in terms of preparing for the Christmas Day matchup at Acrisure Stadium.
“They get big, man, run the football,” said Bolton during his Monday press conference per video from the Chiefs’ YouTube channel. “Honestly, one of the things that sticks out, they’re not that much in yards per carry. But yards per game, they’re pretty up there in the league. And so it kind of shows [the] framework of their team and they’re gonna run the football whether they have success or not. And I’m gonna lean on that.”
First off, that’s a bit of a dig against the Steelers run game by Bolton with the yards-per-carry comment followed by “whether they have success or not”. But he’s certainly not wrong. The Steelers rank 31st in the league at 3.9 yards per carry. That’s why there’s such a discrepancy between carries (first in the league) and total rushing yards (11th). The Steelers simply are not an efficient rushing team.
But Arthur Smith and the Steelers are determined to run the ball. Harris averages 15.9 carries per game, up almost a full carry from last year. Warren carries the ball 7.9 times a game, about one carry less per game than 2023 (8.8).
Regardless of whether the Steelers are breaking big runs or just gaining three yards, Arthur Smith will continue to run the ball. He’s pointing to the volume metrics as a sign the run game isn’t struggling. But the Steelers are among the most inefficient rushing offenses in the league. That’s not where a playoff team wants to be.
And even Smith knows that they aren’t operating at peak efficiency, saying they could use a jump-start. Hopefully, the Steelers’ run game will get traction soon to help create a more balanced offense as we near the playoffs. In the meantime, defenders like Nick Bolton know that they’ll be playing downhill and trying to stuff a whole lot of run plays.
