Ray Fittipaldo: It's time for the young Steelers to pull their weight
Published in Football
PITTSBURGH — One of the first dominos to fall in the Steelers' offseason will be whether 36-year-old quarterback Russell Wilson will return.
Another is what to do with George Pickens, their talented but mercurial receiver who is entering the final year of his contract.
Those are two important decisions for general manager Omar Khan, but for better or worse, the nucleus of the offense will return. Other than left tackle Dan Moore, the other four offensive linemen who finished the season as starters are under contract.
And the Steelers already know who will take Moore's place. Broderick Jones is expected to move from right to left tackle and rookie Troy Fauatanu, who spent the season on injured reserve, will be plugged in at right tackle.
Tight end Pat Freiermuth returns and running back Jaylen Warren is poised to take over at running back if, as expected, Najee Harris leaves in free agency.
No matter who plays quarterback, Pittsburgh's offense will remain young — and the development of many of those players will be paramount if the Steelers' offense is ever to make significant advancements.
"It's a big offseason for a lot of young guys trying to take that next step," Freiermuth said. "It's a big season for a lot of us. Whatever that takes individually and collectively, we're going to do it."
The offense under first-year coordinator Arthur Smith did improve in a lot of areas, but it remains among the NFL's lowest-rated units in offensive efficiency. The Steelers finished the season 29th in the NFL in red-zone offense and tied for 26th in rushing yards per attempt.
Among the 14 teams that qualified for the playoffs, the Steelers had the fewest yards. They finished the season 23rd in the league in total offense (319 yards per game). They were 16th in scoring (22.4 points per game). Among the playoff qualifiers, only the Rams and Texans scored fewer points.
During the five-game losing streak that ended their season, the Steelers averaged 14.2 points per game. They did not score more than 17 points in any of those five games.
The offense fell off a cliff late in the season. The Steelers were a top-10 scoring offense after they put up 44 points on the Bengals on December 1, but the late-season slump pushed them all the down to the middle of the pack by season's end.
"We certainly have to score more points," coach Mike Tomlin said. "You're not going to score 14 points a week in January and be very successful."
Now more than ever, the top teams in the NFL are fueled by their offenses. Of the league's top 11 scoring offenses, 10 made the playoffs. The Bengals were the only team in the top 10 that did not qualify, and they were eliminated on the final weekend of the season.
What changed for the Steelers in the final five weeks of the season?
Freiermuth kept coming back to execution, or the lack thereof. In 1976, when John McKay was the head coach of the expansion Tampa Bay Buccaneers, he was asked about his team's execution. He quipped, "I'm in favor of it."
The Steelers looked like an expansion team at the end of the season. NFL Films chronicled the Steelers for the final six weeks of the season for the HBO show "Hard Knocks." They also picked up some footage for their latest version of Football Follies.
In the playoff loss to the Ravens, Broderick Jones and Dan Moore Jr. pulled on the same play. It's a wonder they didn't collide. Blown assignments happened all too often, whether it was receivers not running the right routes, tight ends and linemen not lining up or getting called for ill-timed penalties.
"You're going to get beat sometimes," Freiermuth said. "You learn from that, but you should be able to execute your assignments. We have to figure it out."
Tomlin intimated that youth and inexperience might have reared their ugly heads late in the season as things deteriorated, especially on the offensive line.
Center Zach Frazier and right guard Mason McCormick started as rookies. In McCormick's case, it was because of an injury to veteran James Daniels. Fautanu was trending toward being the Steelers' best offensive lineman before he was injured.
"It didn't end the way we would like," Tomlin said. "We absorbed a lot of attrition during the course of the journey. We ended up playing a lot of young people. They responded in a real positive way, but maybe they fatigued, mentally and physically."
The Steelers have used premium draft choices on offensive players in recent years. Four of their first five picks last year play offense, including their top three. Freiermuth was a second-round pick in 2021 and Pickens a second-round pick in 2022.
Young players develop on different timelines, but the Steelers need their youthful core to take a big step forward in 2025.
"It's just execution," Freiermuth said. "It really comes down to that. We have to be on the same page early in games. As players, we have to take pride in that. We were all happy with the game plans. We just have to execute better.
"When we were rolling, no one was talking about the game plans. It comes down to execution and asking yourself individually how you can get better at that."
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