Stop me if you’ve heard this before, but the Steelers offense is struggling again in 2024. So far this season the team is averaging 18.4 points per game. This marks the third year running the Pittsburgh Steelers offense has averaged less than twenty points per game. Even going back to Ben Roethlisberger’s final season in 2021, the team barely managed to break the twenty point per game barrier at 20.2 PPG. Granted we are only five games into the season, but there are very few signs that this offense is about to improve. In fact, the entire unit seemed to regress Sunday night versus a very banged up Dallas Cowboys defense. So the question becomes who do we blame for the offensive struggles on this team?
Justin Fields:
Any time you talk about offense in the NFL, you must start with the quarterback position. There have been moments this season where it has looked like the Steelers finally found a potential franchise quarterback in Justin Fields. He has been responsible for every touchdown this team has scored in 2024 either through the air, or running it in himself. Unfortunately, the knock on Fields being inconsistent has held true again this year. We’re not close to being ready to give up on Fields given all the other issues we will be going into detail about next. He does however deserve some of the blame for this offense’s struggles.
Injuries:
You hate to use injures as a crutch when looking for reasons why a team struggles. Every NFL team goes through some level of attrition during a season. We have to at least acknowledge however that this offense has had its share of injuries, particularly along the offensive line. The Steelers have put three lineman on IR that are not expected back this season. They also haven’t had their second best offensive weapon in Jaylen Warren. Even when Warren has played this season, he is clearly nowhere close to one hundred percent. On a team with very few game changing players on offense, his loss is immense.
Omar Khan:
Speaking of very few elite offensive weapons, the lack there of falls directly into the lap of the general manager. Omar Khan traded the team’s best route runner in Diontae Johnson, and never sufficiently replaced him. Adding castoffs like Van Jefferson, and Scotty Miller did nothing to solve the team’s depth issue at wide receiver. The argument that he has put together quite possibly the worst wide receiver room in the NFL is a very big reason for the Steelers offense being in the predicament it is in. Steelers wide receiver room: The worst in the Mike Tomlin era
Mike Tomlin:
Of all the reasons you can think of into why the Steelers offense is struggling, every one can be traced back to one person….Mike Tomlin. If you notice, we did not include Arthur Smith in the list of reasons for the troubles on offense. (Although he does have a significant part in it). We didn’t include him because he was the hand picked person by Mike Tomlin to run this unit. He is running the style of offense that Tomlin has wanted ever since Ben Roethlisberger retired. A risk averse, heavy running offense that is dependent on HIS defense to be elite in order for this team to be successful. There were a lot more innovative, modern thinking candidates out there that didn’t even get an interview here. Arthur Smith was the man Tomlin wanted, period.
This team discarded a top tier receiver in a trade for a corner. They spent nearly all of its free agent budget on a linebacker. They did not draft a skill position player until the third round, despite the glaring need for one. Mike Tomlin is a defensive head coach, and that’s where he wants his resources spent. This is exactly how you end up averaging 18 points a game over a two and change year span. The Steelers have been through 5 quarterbacks, and 2 offensive coordinators since 2021 with the results remaining the same. The one constant through all this is Mike Tomlin. Call it ego, call it outdated philosophy, call it anything you want. Until Tomlin changes his way of doing things with this franchise, this is the offensive football we will be stuck with.
Don’t forget to check out the new Steelers Sanctuary Podcast here: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1981237/episodes/15893701-episode-38-the-good-the-bad-and-the-ugly-for-week-5