Najee Harris has each and every proper to be annoyed. The Pittsburgh Steelers offense has been striking Band-Aids over its leaks all season simply seeking to get to tomorrow. This is a technique that has in large part labored. They’ve scored 25 or extra issues best as soon as this season, but nonetheless stay within the thick of the playoff hunt at 6-4.
The Steelers’ DVOA numbers installed print what the tape obviously presentations: They’re a reasonably above-average soccer group. Their protection is excellent, however their offense is mediocre. The issue the Steelers have with their unspectacular offense is that the worst phase is the construction itself.
Harris mentioned as a lot when chatting with the media after Pittsburgh’s Week 11 loss to the Cleveland Browns and their rookie fifth-round quarterback, Dorian Thompson-Robinson. Harris was once visibly annoyed and made positive to specific it. He even put some blame at the offensive training workforce. He was once requested if he felt that the opposing groups knew what’s approaching offense, and took an extended pause earlier than in any case answering.
“Yeah, in some scenarios to be truthful with you,” Harris mentioned.
That was once a part of a large number of venting he did all over the media scrum. He additionally mentioned that whilst the Steelers have a just right document, they will be unable to proceed successful the best way that they’re taking part in.
Harris mainly mentioned the loud phase out loud, a few weeks after George Pickens was once stuck at the sidelines in Week 9 expressing displeasure. Later that week, Pickens scrubbed all of his Steelers content material from his social media and posted “loose me.” He would later deny that task had the rest to do with him being disenchanted. On the other hand, Steelers gamers and coaches did inform the media that he has been vocal about his issues relating to his position within the offense.
Mike Tomlin has experience in protecting an unsatisfied workforce in combination and getting the most efficient out of them. On the other hand, getting the most efficient out of less-than-ideal cases will best take a group up to now. Going into this season, Kenny Pickett was once meant to take a step ahead. The usage of 20/20 hindsight, no person must have believed that was once imaginable.
In Matt Canada’s 3rd season as offensive coordinator, the offense is receiving the similar grievance it did when Harris ran right into a brick wall 307 occasions as a rookie in 2021. Canada’s offense is just too fundamental and predictable. Fanatics, gasbags and soccer nerds all agree in this.
The Steelers have seven video games closing on their agenda and now their gamers are, one at a time, coming to a boiling level. Harris is dead-on when he says that the best way the Steelers are scraping through in victories isn’t the right way to win within the NFL.
Sadly for him and his teammates, that’s the best manner that they’re going to be capable of win this season. The Steelers don’t make adjustments temporarily, and in no way in season. The Athletic’s Dianna Russini has already reported that the group has no plans to phase techniques with Canada all over the season. That was once in mid-October all over the Steelers’ bye week. She incorporated in her document that he had the fortify of Tomlin and the gamers.
Neatly, that kumbaya seems to be dressed in skinny. There was once first an outburst from Pickens after which a measured, but nonetheless pointed, grievance from Harris.
Those demanding moments are when Tomlin does a few of his best possible paintings. He has confirmed he can stay the send from sinking and drift it to the shore of a 9-8 season. On the other hand, until the Steelers do one thing fully towards the character in their franchise through making an in-season alternate at offensive coordinator, gamers shall be sitting on that shore unsatisfied that the send didn’t get them the place they in the end sought after to head.
