The Fatal Flaw of the Steelers Running Game

The Steelers came into the season stating they wanted to bully people up front. They made no qualms about that, and their offseason moves back it up. The team brought in multiple new offensive linemen through free agency and the draft, drafted a noted ferocious blocker in Darnell Washington, and brought aboard a receiver known for blocking in Allen Robinson II. After having the 3rd best-rushing offense after their bye week last season, the team’s rushing attack should progress into the crux for the team and one of the NFL’s best. Instead, it has regressed into one of the league’s worst.

The team has too many questions up front already. Center Mason Cole has regressed while the rest of the group is still jelling. But one stat indicates the team’s main issue in the run game — the running backs have nowhere to run, and a lot of it is schematic. The Steelers often run out of condensed looks, inviting defenders into the box. By doing so, the group better have the box number matched up. But that’s the issue: the number of free runners in the backfield this year is absurd.

So far this season, the Steelers running backs average 0.74 yards before first contact. That’s last in the NFL, and it’s not close. The Buccaneers and Browns rank next in the hierarchy, but Pittsburgh’s rushing attack is as dead in the water as any group’s. That’s not how they envisioned this playing out.

“This team is going to have a clear identity. It’ll be going back to the roots of the Pittsburgh Steelers. We’re going to be big, we’re going to be physical, we’re going to be tough,” assistant general manager Andy Weidl said in May. “We are going to break the will of other teams.”

So, the team came into the offseason wanting to beef up the trenches. Weidl is a former offensive lineman himself. His mantra has always been that teams win in the trenches. Now, that seems to be the team’s identity moving forward. The biggest issue is the team does not match up. While the players are far from absolved from blame, there’s no doubt that the group is being hurt schematically with these free rushers flying through gaps each game.