There are plenty of fingers to point when it comes to the Pittsburgh Steelers’ struggles on offense. Matt Canada has taken the majority of the hits from the press, and fans. There may be an equally big culprit in the struggles this team has had over the past few seasons. Pat Meyer is a big part of the problem with this offense as well.
Let’s just look at the facts. Since leaving the Steelers to join the Rams in a trade, Kevin Dotson is now ranked the third best guard in all of football by PFF. This is a remarkable story considering how much he struggled in Pittsburgh despite his obvious talents. Speaking of remarkable stories, Kendrick Green was well on his way to carving out a starting role on the Houston Texans offensive line before getting injured. We don’t have to remind Steelers fans how Green was basically unplayable in his time with the Steelers.
That’s two former players thriving outside of the Pat Meyer system. What about the players still here you ask? Well the early returns are once again not encouraging. Dan Moore and Chuks Okorafor have never taken a step forward under Meyer. Mason Cole has completely fallen off a cliff at this point. Even the big free agent signing Isaac Seumalo hasn’t quite lived up to his play in Philadelphia yet this season.
The stats only further dam what Meyer is doing here. The Steelers yards per carry average ranks 27th in the NFL at 3.4. That’s actually down from last year’s unspectacular 4.2. https://www.nfl.com/stats/team-stats/offense/rushing/2023/reg/all
Pittsburgh does not have a 100 yard rusher to date, and does not have a rushing touchdown through five games. That is the longest drought in their modern history. The pass blocking is not much better. Kenny Pickett has been sacked 14 times. He is on pace to be sacked a whopping 48 times in 2023. Some of this is on Pickett, but the majority of the blame goes on a poor pass blocking unit.
All of this to say that when looking for reasons why this offense is struggling once again, Pat Meyer is a big part of the problem without question. He has been unable to improve this line at any point in his time here. In fact most have regressed, or flourished when they’ve gone elsewhere.
As we have said many times on this site, Mike Tomlin’s choices in his coaching staff have killed this team over the years. This franchise needs to clean house on the offensive side of the ball in 2024. A new coordinator from outside of the organization with fresh ideas is badly needed. More of the same is simply not good enough anymore.