The Steelers’ 3-0 start feels like a decade ago. Right now, the story is Pittsburgh’s 0-2 streak, and Read & React is here to talk about the doom and gloom and assign some blame. But don’t worry, stick around for our Week 6 Raiders preview, and you’ll see that there’s still some optimism for the Steelers’ upcoming matchup.
Legit or Quit?
George Pickens won’t be a Steeler much longer
Photo by Jane Gershovich/Getty Images
RB: Legit. And I think this is true whether or not you believe Mike Tomlin when he said Pickens wasn’t benched. Tomlin chalked it up to “load management” — which really doesn’t make a lot of sense — when fielding a flurry of questions regarding the star receiver. Tomlin also stated that Pickens isn’t one of the team’s primary blockers at wide receiver at the point of attack. Even if Tomlin is being completely honest, it’s not a great look for how the team views Pickens’ abilities and contributions.
Granted, we’ve seen the behavioral issues and “drama” storylines with Pickens before. Last season, there were similar conversations and he responded with a 195-yard game against the Cincinnati Bengals. Don’t let the panicked reactions to Sunday’s loss convince you that Pickens is a lost cause for the rest of the season. A trade is far from likely — although this is the organization that dealt Chase Claypool and Diontae Johnson without much fanfare. It wouldn’t exactly be shocking, either.
But after the Antonio Brown blowup of 2019, the Steelers have seemingly learned their lesson regarding players with consistent off-field problems. “Volunteers not hostages” has become not just a Tomlinism but an organizational motto. Pickens may regain his standing with the team’s coaches and fans later this season, but he has still shown remarkable immaturity on multiple occasions — this is far from a one-time issue.
The Steelers are so weak at wide receiver that it’d be incredibly unwise to get rid of Pickens while he’s still so cheap unless there’s something we don’t know about. But I don’t think the team will want to shell out a future $30 million a year to a guy who may not even want to be there half the time. Unless something radically changes, I think Pickens’ antics on Sunday showed he’s unlikely to receive a second contract from the Steelers.
RP: Quit. Man, we’re doing this already, huh? I know Pickens has rubbed people the wrong way at times. And no, I’m not going to pretend there haven’t been times where his effort has been questionable. But at the same time, I’m not so ready to give up on someone with as much talent as Pickens who is still only 23 years old. It’s not an excuse, Pickens needs to do some growing up. But if the Steelers run him out of town while he’s still under contract through 2025, that’s far too reactionary for my taste.
Plus you think this room is bad now? Can you imagine how bad it’d be without Pickens? And based on the comment sections across social media, it appears our fanbase at large has learned little from the Brandon Aiyuk saga about how hard it’s not so easy to just trade for some other team’s disgruntled star receiver — not to mention the irony that any disgruntled wideout you trade for will probably also have personality quirks you’ll gripe about just as much as the guy you just shipped out!
Like Ryland, I’m not buying Tomlin’s comments fully about this just being a “load management” game for Pickens. That’s not really a thing we’ve ever seen done with a wideout who wasn’t nursing a significant injury. For a team as offensively challenged as Pittsburgh, playing your best skill position 59 percent of the snaps seems counterintuitive to winning. I tend to believe you should have your best players on the field as often as possible, and Pickens rarely left the field last season, yet had some of his best performances in December.
Still, I will point out that Pittsburgh played in a lot of heavy personnel against Dallas, and Pickens tends to leave the field in those formations. In Week 1, Pittsburgh played a ton of heavy personnel as well, and Pickens played just 69 percent of the snaps. That largely went unnoticed because he made several flashy plays while catching six for 85 yards. The following two weeks he played just 77 percent and 74 percent of snaps. His 86 percent figure against Indianapolis was likely a product of being down multiple scores for most of the game. All that said, I’d argue the running game hasn’t been effective enough for Smith and Tomlin to justify sidelining Pickens.
Is there a world where Pickens is traded in the offseason or leaves after 2025 in free agency? Sure, it’s not impossible. I’m just struggling to see how we’re already back here so quickly with the Pickens discourse. I’m tired, boss.
The Steelers have a coaching problem
Charles LeClaire-Imagn Images
RP: Legit. I mean where do we even begin, right? I’ve always been a Tomlin supporter, and I still think he’s a good coach. But among the coaching archetypes we like to throw around, Tomlin falls under the “CEO” mold. He oversees the operation and focuses on player development and culture building. He’s not the schematic guru like any of the many coaches under the Shanahan-Kubiak-McVay coaching umbrella who call the plays themselves from the sideline. Neither is superior to the other. But for Mike Tomlin, it might be time to have some tough reflection about the staff you’ve built around you.
Pat Meyer’s offensive lines have traditionally started out slowly and gotten better as the season goes on — as long as they’re mostly healthy. There’s no one stat that can fully grade an offensive line coach, but in the post-Roethlisberger years, the Steelers have made it clear they want to return to being a run-heavy team.
That in-and-of-itself isn’t a problem. With defenses adjusting to what has previously been a golden era of passing production and innovation, passing yardage and scoring across the league is down. Defenses have changed tactics and shifted on what body types they prefer. Linebackers once were big bruising men meant to plug the running lane. Now with the advancement in the passing game, it isn’t uncommon for teams to play guys in the 220s and 230s so they can cover more ground. In that way, a strong rushing attack makes a logical counter.
The problem is, I’m not sure Pat Meyer is the guy to get them there. Looking at the rushing attacks of NFL teams he has been the offensive line coach for so far in his career, and there is a lot left to be desired. In 2017-2019 — with two plus-runners in Melvin Gordon and Austin Ekeler, mind you — the Chargers ranked 24th, 15th, and 28th in rushing, with two seasons where the team yards-per-carry was sub-4.0. In Carolina in 2020 and 2021? Twenty-first and 20th.
Meyer’s been with Pittsburgh since 2022. In that time the Steelers have traditionally gotten off to a slow start with their offensive line play. There have been weird position changes and development plans: Broderick Jones, Kendrick Green, and Kevin Dotson, just to name a few. Currently, the Steelers are 11th in the league in rushing with 606 yards, but that’s misleading. The Lions (605 yards) and Chargers (511) both had byes and would be ahead of the Steelers if they maintained their season averages. There’s also the fact that 172 of the Steelers’ rushing yards (28.4%) have come from Justin Fields scrambles or designed runs, which obscures how ineffective the Steelers' running backs have been running the ball. Take Fields out of the equation and the 434 rushing yards the Steelers have mustered would rank 29th in the league.
Watching this Steelers rushing attack on film is a tough watch. Last week, I looked at how Mason McCormick has looked on tape so far, and came away frustrated with how often the Steelers have a blocker unsure of who the scheme called for them to block, or just outright whiffing on their assignment. That includes offensive linemen, tight ends, and whatever you want to classify Connor Heyward as.
Mostly, however, I've come away encouraged by his tape. For most of his snaps, McCormick has done his job at worst, and excelled at best. Unfortunately, the same can't always be said of his teammates. 83 is brutal to watch on tape. McCormick and Moore win their double here tho pic.twitter.com/ePwl5IpzCV
— Ryan Parish (@RyanParishmedia) October 5, 2024
Then there’s Arthur Smith. I’m not ready to pull the plug on him yet, but it has been frustrating early. Smith loves condensed formations and he likes running a lot of plays out of a handful of formations to try to deceive defenses. If the same look can present different runs and passes, it’s hard to predict, right? That sounds all well and good when it’s working. But if the players are struggling to execute and you’ve become predictable? That’s a deadly combination. When you condense the offense, the defense condenses too. It’s hard to be successful running the ball when you invite the defense to crowd the line of scrimmage.
On the plus side, those two runs put McCormick in a position he will not be asked to fill moving forward, so we can essentially toss them out. If there is one area McCormick can focus on, it's his pad level. Sometimes he gets too high and surrenders leverage like on this run. pic.twitter.com/4Y8N7kZRYq
— Ryan Parish (@RyanParishmedia) October 5, 2024
Smith has also struggled to scheme up looks for George Pickens and Freiermuth, the two best pass catchers the Steelers have.
The lack of plays this offense designs for 14 and 88 is maddening.
Pickens is only 22nd in the NFL in targets. Freiermuth 14th in targets among TEs.
Both should be higher.
— Nick Farabaugh (@FarabaughFB) October 8, 2024
There’s a whole other article’s worth of material I will have to write someday about how little “easy” there is designed into this offense, especially the passing attack. But for now, I’ll let these charts quantify what the eye test already sees: the Steelers receivers aren’t good enough on their own to get separation, and the scheme is doing little to help.
And that’s not even touching on how often the Steelers have literally dropped the ball in key situations.
And that’s just the offense. Should I even mention that this organization had 2024 defensive coordinator IT man Brian Flores in the building two years ago, but let him walk?
At the end of the day, I still like the progress of the team in the long view. There’s clearly talent here they can build on, but the defense might need to be retooled by the time the offense can match up to it. If Tomlin’s going to turn this thing around, he’s going to need to start leaving his comfort zone.
RB: Legit. Let’s give it up for Ryan, guys. It’s late as I write this and I’m tired but he already hit the main points (with evidence!) and that makes my job easy.
As pointed out above, largely in regards to the offensive line, the Steelers don’t just have a lack of talent on the field. Sure, there are guys getting overpowered at times and that’s a problem, but a lot of Pittsburgh’s issues come from confusion and whiffs on blocks that even “bad” linemen should be able to connect on.
Then there’s the Pickens saga, which can be read two ways: either the Steelers are refusing to give the ball to their best offensive player for no good reason, or they do have a good reason and it’s because they’re losing a battle to his attitude.
Oh yeah, the third-and-eight toss play to Aaron Shampklin last week to play for an early field goal. What was that about?
On the defensive side of things, I won’t pretend to be a guru, but I will tell you that the Steelers have far too much talent on that side of the ball to get as toasted as they did by the Colts two weeks ago. Patrick Queen just hasn’t looked worth his massive contract. Linebackers are still covering wide receivers. The safeties have too much on their plate and Joey Porter Jr., an elite press-man corner, has been tasked with a lot of zone.
Teryl Austin’s rather basic scheme has been being carried by the talent on defense rather than enhancing it. If a star like T.J. Watt doesn't make a superhuman play, the defense looks shockingly mediocre despite its hefty price tag. Let’s scheme up some creative blitzes and coverages! Instead, the group has been picked apart the last several weeks, only saved by the occasional splash play.
To clarify, coaching is not the only problem the Steelers have. It might not even be the biggest, but blame still needs to go around. Player development and innovation have been continual issues for the past several years.
The Steelers’ injuries could doom the season
Kirby Lee-Imagn Images
RB: Quit. And that’s not to say that the Steelers’ injuries won’t hurt the team a lot. It’s a roster built around outside linebacker play and the run game right now, and the vast majority of those relevant position groups will be out against the Raiders.
But good players step up. Good coaches will scheme around it. And of course, every NFL team has injuries, and several are as bad as the Steelers’ situation if not worse. Dallas was without Micah Parsons and DeMarcus Lawrence last week on the D-line, while DaRon Bland was out and Trevon Diggs was banged up in the secondary. The Cowboys still shut down the Steelers offense.
Injuries can be a piece of the puzzle, but they can’t be an excuse for a loss with the exception of a franchise cornerstone going down. It’s that time of year, and attrition is happening to everyone. The Steelers absolutely still have the healthy talent to beat the Raiders on Sunday.
RP: Quit. If we’re not going to allow excuses for the players or the coaching staff failing to execute, we can’t be bitching and moaning about injuries. Can’t do it. Every team has injuries in the NFL. Some years are worse than others, but it’s a violent game and a long season. That’s never going to change. Besides, if we’re being honest, the positions hurting the Steelers most — wide receiver and slot corner — were problems we saw coming before the Steelers even held their first practice of training camp. Injuries to the offensive line and the pass rush are not helping matters, but it’s hard to pin the current losing streak on any factors beyond the players on the field and the coaching staff tasked with having them ready.
Week 6 preview
What to expect vs. the Raiders’ offense
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RP: If you want to find an offense struggling as much as the Steelers, look no further than your 2024 Las Vegas Raiders. The Raiders benched starting quarterback Gardner Minshew during Sunday’s game, and this week he’ll be competing with second-year quarterback Aidan O’Connell during practices to determine who gets the start. O’Connell has the tendency to push the ball down the field more often than Minshew, but that isn’t either quarterback’s strong suit.
The Raiders rushing attack has been ineffective whether it’s Zamir White or Alexander Mattison. They rank 30th in rushing with just 420 yards as a team. Mattison has managed two touchdowns, while third-down back Ameer Abdullah and two different gadget receivers have scored once.
They deceptively have the 12th most passing yards on the season, but that’s because they are often trailing and have the 10th most attempts in the league, while ranking only 24th in average yard per reception.
Star wide receiver Davante Adams will be out, you might have heard, which means the Raiders top two weapons will be Jakobi Meyers and rookie tight end Brock Bowers. Meyers is a solid pro — and someone who would be a great WR2 or WR3 on a team like the Steelers — but someone I think either Joey Porter Jr. or Donte Jackson could match up well with.
The real threat will be Bowers. In college, Georgia used Bowers in a myriad of ways, including in the running game as a ball carrier. The Raiders have only given one carry to Bowers so far, but it went for 12 yards. Beyond that he has 21.5 percent target share good for 28 receptions, 313 yards and one score. He leads the team in both receptions and receiving yards. And while the ability to get him the ball can look shaky, Bowers is dangerous once the ball is in his hands.
The Raiders only have five passing touchdowns and no player has more than one receiving touchdown.
And what about the defense?
Photo by Brooke Sutton/Getty Images
RB: I like to start with a matchup when I write these previews. The obvious one this week will be Maxx Crosby against the Steelers’ offensive line (Vegas moves Crosby around a lot).
Crosby is one of the league’s elite pass-rushers, and he’s got a lot of T.J. Watt in his game: the nonstop effort, and the ability to chase down runs when left unblocked on the outside. Sound familiar? Yeah, I’m really worried about Crosby shutting down the Steelers’ Najee Harris zone run attack this week.
Unfortunately for the Raiders, their top interior defensive lineman Christian Wilkins is going on injured reserve following last week. It’ll be yet another game where the Steelers face a team down a major talent on the D-line. Pittsburgh hasn’t been able to capitalize yet, but not having to go against the interior force that is Wilkins will certainly help.
Beyond the threat of Crosby blowing up every play, it will be interesting to see how the Raiders go about attacking the quarterback. Las Vegas actually ranks near the bottom of the league in quarterback pressure rate at just 28.7%, but they’re near the top in blitz rate (33.1%). They’re not always the most effective, but they send extra guys a lot.
That doesn’t tell the full story though, as the Raiders like to run a lot of simulated pressures, lining up like they’re going to blitz but only rushing three or four. It can get the quarterback flustered early but also causes confusion for the offensive line.
It’s hard to tell who’s coming and who’s going, and by the time the O-line realizes the defensive tackle is settling into zone coverage, the slot corner is already past the line of scrimmage with a bead on the quarterback. Sim pressures also make the coverage initially confusing, something that might challenge Justin Fields (if he starts) as he hasn’t been the most confident reading secondaries this season.
The Raiders haven’t been the most efficient pressuring the quarterback this year, but against an inexperienced and still-gelling O-line like Pittsburgh’s, the confusing matchup of Patrick Graham’s defense might be a problem.
That being said, the aggressive nature of Las Vegas’ front seven meant the Denver Broncos had some success with screens, draws, and play-action last week.
Past the line of scrimmage, the matchup gets a bit more encouraging. Former Steelers inside linebacker Robert Spillane has been excellent for Las Vegas, but coverage still isn’t a strength. Outside of Spillane, there were a lot of missed tackles from what I saw against the Broncos, especially on the outside.
The most missed tackles through 5 Weeks per PFF:
1. Raiders – 66
2. Falcons – 62
3. #Colts – 60
3. Rams – 60
5. Buccaneers – 59
10 NFL defenses have missed 50+ tackles while just 4 have 60+ missed tackles.
— Noah Compton (@nerlens_) October 8, 2024
There also seems to be a lack of speed in the Raiders’ linebacker corps and secondary. Marvin Mims and Jaleel McLaughlin both had some nice plays, and Troy Franklin was wide open deep at one point (he went on to drop a sure touchdown). This could be a big week for Calvin Austin III if the Steelers can find a way to get him the ball.
If the Steelers can hold their own in the trenches (and that’s an if), this projects as a good matchup for Pittsburgh. Love it or hate it, the outside passing game, especially if the Steelers can get the ball to their faster receivers, could be a real asset in stretching a Raiders defense that lacks great sideline-to-sideline speed. Arthur Smith’s signature play-action game will also fare well against Las Vegas’ tendency to crowd the line of scrimmage.
The Steelers will just have to establish enough of a run game — and survive Maxx Crosby — long enough for the rest to work.
Join in on Steelers R&R by sharing your takes on this week’s topics. Is coaching Pittsburgh’s biggest problem? Are George Pickens’ days as a Steeler limited? How big of a challenge will the Raiders be? Let us know in the comments! Feel free to pitch future questions in the comment section or on Twitter/X: tag @_Ryland_B or @RyanParishMedia.
