Hitting panic in preseason is a fool’s errand, but if anyone deserves button-mashing it’s the Pittsburgh Steelers. A loss to the Texans on Saturday took the Steelers’ preseason record to 0-2, but far more importantly it was the second straight week the team’s starters failed to score a single offensive touchdown.
Russell Wilson and Justin Fields have been abysmal thus far in Arthur Smith’s offense. There’s no doubt Smith is far better than Matt Canada was this time a year ago, but the key issue is whether the Smith offense can work without a solid offensive line. Protection has been woeful for Pittsburgh, and that has left Wilson and Fields unable to make any impact plays, and completing passes to little effect.
That’s not something which can be ignored and written off as a “vanilla offense.” Basic offensive line blocking isn’t something that is impacted by game plan, and we’re seeing the Pittsburgh OL crumble. That’s only going to get worse with the revelation that starting center Nate Herbig suffered a season-ending injury, causing the team to lean on rookie Zach Frazier, while right tackle Broderick Jones looked lost for much of the game vs. Houston, allowing two sacks in the loss.
It’s impossible to ignore the problems. This team is not performing at a level needed to compete in the AFC North, and as much as Steelers fans might want to hand wave this off as pointless football we’ve learned this is the first step to denial.
Now Jaylen Warren is out for at least a few weeks, meaning in a very real way the Steelers lost their two most important players in executing Smith’s offensive vision. He uses change of pace backs to create big plays in lieu of explosive passing, and now the Steelers only have Najee Harris behind a hobbled offensive line, a lack of depth at receiver, and quarterbacks who don’t have time to execute.
Make no mistake: The Steelers needed an upgrade at quarterback after their disastrous Kenny Pickett experiment. The issue is that they invested in quarterback at the expense of almost everything else, as if it would be the magic bullet to propel them forward in the AFC North. Now we’re seeing more cracks emerge in the plan, especially after trading away Diontae Johnson, their best separator, and the only receiver they had who could make life easier for quarterbacks under duress. This is going to make it profoundly difficult to get off to a strong start in 2024, with the Falcons season opener already looking like a loss, and now games against the Broncos and Chargers being toss-ups thanks to the loss of Warren.
There’s a very real chance we see an 0-4 start to the season, and that’s before Pittsburgh plays a single AFC North opponent. What once felt like a team capable of winning the division and making a deep run now looks anything but.
Rumors of Steelers greatness may have been greatly exaggerated.
