Saunders: Where are Steelers Offensive Leaders?

PITTSBURGH — Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Kenny Pickett made some headlines on Sunday when he said that he didn’t think that the Steelers offense studied its playbook enough, and that mental mistakes, rooted in the lack of knowledge, were the cause of the penalties and other negative plays that have beset the Pittsburgh offense.

The Steelers were penalized six times on offense in their 35-13 loss to the Philadelphia Eagles, and now lead the league in at least two offensive penalty categories.

In speaking with several veteran members of the offense on Monday, all agreed with Pickett’s assessment of the problems with the offense. 

Obviously, players not knowing the playbook well enough and making mistakes that hurt the team as a result of it is a problem.

“We as an offense need to own it, individually and collectively, and make more of an emphasis to learn our responsibilities,” tight end Zach Gentry said.

But isn’t it an even bigger problem that a rookie with four games played in his NFL career is the one to point it out? Shouldn’t there be veteran players telling Pickett how much more he needs to study now that he’s in the NFL and not in college football?  If Pickett is the one that’s noticing others’ shortcomings, I think it says a lot about the lack of leadership on the Steelers offense.

The Steelers do have an extremely young group on offense. Two starters are rookies. Three are in their second year. Two more are in their third. Among starters, only center Mason Cole, right guard James Daniels and right tackle Chukwuma Okorafor are not playing under their rookie contract.

The second team has some more experience, but by and large, this is not an experienced unit. It’s time for those leaders that the group does have to set up and make sure it’s not the rookie quarterback that’s leading the charge against his teammates.

“Yeah,” Gentry said. “We do have some offensive and defensive leaders. We need people to buy in. We need the group to buy in. We’ve got to figure out how to get it done, because we’ve got to win some some games.”

There has been a ton of discussion about the impact of coordinator Matt Canada on the Steelers offense, and make no mistake, this is probably not even an average offensive unit, even if they eliminate the mental errors. 

But things like a lack of talent and a scheme that doesn’t seem to be elevating any of it are very difficult problems to solve. Knowing where to go and what to do on each and every play is a part of every player’s job, and they need the be the ones to impact that change.

“This is the National Football League,” Cole said. “This is our jobs. This is what we get paid to do. For guys to not know what they’re doing on a play solely falls on them. Guys have to know what they’re doing. We’re given all the tools, we’re given the assignments. It’s our job to know what we’re supposed to be doing and where we’re supposed to do it.”

The are things that probably can’t be solved with the Steelers offense right now, but cleaning up those mental errors is certainly one of them.