The Pittsburgh Steelers’ rushing attack made strides during the last game. Today, I wanted to look at, in context, Pittsburgh’s run scheme this season compared to Week 4. That game featured the best rushing total (131 yards) of 2025 despite starter Jaylen Warren not playing.
Even so, the Steelers ran the ball 29 times, tied for 14th last week, compared to tying for 23rd on the year. RB Kenneth Gainwell was particularly successful, nearly having a 100-yard day, and the offensive line definitely played better.
Some explainers before we dive deeper. The run types in this article are zone and power. Zone runs are inside zone, outside zone, stretch, and zone counter runs. Power includes counter, trap, lead, power, sweep, duo, and wham runs. Here are the total zone and power runs across the NFL this season from Sports Info Solutions (SIS):
A few things jump out. First, the visual further illustrates the low volume of Pittsburgh’s run game across four games. Also, despite offensive coordinator Arthur Smith being known for running zone schemes often, the Steelers land below league average. 45 zone runs tie for 19th, while 25 power runs land at the mean and tie for 14th.
Small sample size, no doubt, but I found this very interesting. Percentages can often be a better stat, seeing the frequency of each regardless of how much the team runs in totality. Here’s that visual:
Each run type rises a bit compared to the total numbers. Pittsburgh has a 46.9-percent zone rate this season, still landing below the mean, and holds the same rank as earlier (19th). Power lands at an above-average 26 percent, and ranks 15th (one spot lower than total power runs).
Broadly, zone runs are the most common run type for today’s NFL. Ironically, Atlanta, where Smith was the head coach before coordinating in Pittsburgh, leads the NFL with a whopping 75.6 zone runs in 2025, where Smith was the head coach prior to Pittsburgh. In his last season there (2023), the Falcons were second in zone attempts and 27th in power. In 2024, in his first year as Steelers OC, the team was seventh in zone runs and 27th in power attempts.
While it’s a young 2025 season, that’s quite notable. The Steelers are running power more, and their best individual game rank was their Week Four power runs:
Night and day difference. Pittsburgh tied for the fourth-most power runs in Week Four, at 31 percent (seventh). Several factors go into how this plays out week-to-week. Is power preferred/better for Gainwell than Warren (who didn’t play)? Did the offensive line simply have its best run blocking game all season? Scheming the opponent? (And more, of course).
These are valid questions, especially when Pittsburgh’s 131 yards in Week Four nearly doubled each of their other three games of 2025. The answers aren’t black and white, unfortunately. History suggests that things will likely shift back to more zone. But one thing’s for sure: the Steelers enjoyably got the power ground game going in Ireland. More of that, please.
