The One Schematic Issue the Steelers Offense Can Fix Today

PITTSBURGH — Najee Harris believes that the Steelers’ offensive struggles fall not upon the coaches but the players. His passionate defense of Canada and the other offensive coaching staff made waves yesterday. Harris pointed to the players to fix what is going on on offense, and Pittsburgh remains stagnated offensively, averaging just 12.5 points per game on offense through four games.

“We’ve got to execute the plays,” Harris said. “We’re not trying to point the finger at all. This is not the time to do that. It keeps being a conversation to be brought up, or not even brought up, but things that are talked about so much. It’s crazy. We have to execute at the end of the day, no matter who is back there calling the plays. I honestly say that we’re not doing that right now — not coaches. It has nothing to do with coaches. It’s just players. We have to play better.”

It’s true; the execution is lackluster. But you know what can influence execution? Are the players being set up in the best position possible to succeed? In the Steelers offense, I’d argue that the answer is no. And it contributes to predictability, lack of execution overall, and a variability that has teams keying in hard on Pittsburgh’s offense.

This is a wide-sweeping point on offense. There are no apparent moves to be made on offense with Calvin Austin III starting and Broderick Jones now inserted into the lineup. But I need to see players moving around and playing different spots. Whenever he comes back, there is zero reason the Steelers should play Pat Freiermuth at the end man on the line of scrimmage down-blocking edge rushers. George Pickens needs to move around more in sets. We should see more two running back stuff. There needs to be more pulling guards and spread looks.

This is a schematic change as much as it is a personnel change. Why is Allen Robinson II always the guy condensed to the inside of the formation? Can that not be George Pickens or Austin? Can Pickens be the point man in the bunch set? It opens up many other options for route concepts that feel underutilized in this scheme. Players struggle on the execution side sometimes, but the players aren’t getting many opportunities to fill a diverse cache of roles.

The classic case of this is Pat Freiermuth. Freiermuth has been asked to down block and base block all season. Instead of flexing him out into the tight end spot, Freiermuth has played a mere 20 snaps in the slot this year. That slot rate is vastly cut down from last year. It’s cut nearly in half. Just a year ago, Freiermuth was the 2nd best tight end in yards per route run in the NFL. Yet, he gets blown off the ball trying to block against edge rushers when that is not the strong suit of his game.

It all comes back to Canada. Are the players executing? Nope. Robinson, for example, has looked awful blocking. Sometimes, he looks lost; he can’t make the play and reach the linebacker at others. The team needs to play more out-of-spread looks, where they succeed in the run game rather than condensing the formation and putting the onus on players who are not good blockers. It’s not hard for Canada to see that. But he has to make a sweeping change before it’s too late.