Steelers' 1st-Down Pass Plays Are Built For Failure

The Pittsburgh Steelers' offensive woes have been well-documented and need no introduction. There have been all kinds of debates on whether Kenny Pickett is the team's future at quarterback or not, if the offensive line is at fault, or if Matt Canada is truly the worst offensive coordinator in the NFL, and has zero clue on how to run an NFL offense. Brett Kollman broke down the Steelers offense and found out exactly who is to blame. The Steelers are bad in nearly every aspect, but it all starts with first down. 

Kollman started off with how the team calls their plays on first down. It's surprisingly not bad, with a 47.8% run-to-pass ratio. That is "dead average" in the league, so the Steelers aren't too predictable in that front. In fact, the Steelers are one of the best teams in the NFL when it comes to running the ball effectively on first down. Unfortunately, the positives end there.

Steelers First-Down Woes

The run plays work so well that the Steelers' first-down pass plays are just extensions of the run. Most of these routes on first down are quick, easy throws with little-to-no chance of getting yards after the catch. 

"They just treat [first-down passes] as a run play with extra steps, and they don't make that big of an effort to try and generate explosive passes on first down. They have the third shortest average depth of target on first down at only 7.1 yards, which is really shallow relative to the rest of the league, and schematically speaking, Pickett is often throwing these easy, quick-hitting concepts on first down"

The Steelers occasionally have used the deep pass on first down, like the one Diontae Johnson dropped to begin the game against the Jacksonville Jaguars, but nearly every pass play that has been called on first down has been short and an easy concept that nearly every receiver in the NFL can run in their sleep. 

Kollman theorizes that the Steelers do this to essentially pretend that it is a run play. Five yards is considered a very good run, so the scheme is to try and get that kind of yardage with the passing game, as opposed to trying to call a truly effective pass play.

"In my opinion, the Steelers are using this philosophy on first down with their passing game to essentially mimic the effect of a strong first-down run game to get consistent five and six-yard gains, which they hope will set up a lot of second-and-medium opportunities, which, ideally, would set up a lot of third-and-short opportunities. All of that is well and good, but here's the problem: Many of the best offenses in the NFL are the offenses that skip second and third down entirely and try to create explosive passes on first down when they do throw the ball in that situation."

Sure, 2nd & 5 is better than 2nd and long, but settling for mediocrity in any aspect of the game will lead to mediocrity on the field, which is shown by the Steelers constant hovering around .500 in the Canada era, with a lot of that being due to the defense being forced to help carry the team and create short drives to help the Steelers score offensively. 

All throughout the video, Kollman places the blame squarely on Canada. One of the very first things he said is that there is probably no quarterback in the NFL who can thrive with this conservative, archaic offense. If Patrick Mahomes or Joe Burrow would have trouble thriving in this offense, why should we expect Pickett to be great in this offense?

What do you think about Brett Kollman's takes on the Steelers' first-down inefficiency? Let us know in the comments.

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