Steelers' Danny Crossman Reveals A Hidden Hurdle In Rookie's Return Game

The Pittsburgh Steelers have spent seven games discovering that a return can go wrong before the football ever reaches the man paid to run with it. A flag here, a missed block there, and suddenly a promising lane looks more like rush-hour traffic. Sunday's trip to Paris finally offered glimpses of what this unit could become. The explanation afterward, however, suggested there's still an argument to be had about who deserves the blame.

Special Teams Coordinator Danny Crossman believes rookie Kaden Wetjen is beginning to recognize openings more effectively, but Pittsburgh's 16-10 victory over the New Orleans Saints wasn't a clean breakthrough. The return unit had just two punt opportunities, one complicated by a penalty, while a slip disrupted the timing on a kickoff return. Crossman saw progress from his returner and unfinished work around him.

The numbers offer reason for both reactions. Wetjen opened the afternoon with a 35-yard kickoff return to Pittsburgh's 39-yard line, giving the offense favorable field position. He finished with 60 yards on two kickoffs and 13 yards on his only official punt return. Hardly the explosive afternoon his college résumé promised, but an encouraging step for someone whose early regular-season returns rarely threatened to break open.

During his Monday media availability, Crossman explained why he was hesitant to judge the punt operation by such a small sample.

“I think a lot of it is, you know, opportunities. You know, start with punt return, you know, we were only on the field twice and one of them is a plus-50 fair catch inside the 10-yard line where sadly, we have a penalty on it to put us in an even bad field position [too]. And then we get the second one where we have an opportunity. He was able to get 13 yards, like to get a little bit more out of that, but we only had two ops on that.”

That first play demonstrates why evaluating a returner solely by his average misses part of the job. Wetjen signaled for a fair catch deep in Pittsburgh territory, where trying to manufacture a highlight could have created a disaster. A holding penalty then pushed the offense backward anyway. The returner made a sensible decision and the operation still lost ground.

On the other chance, 13 yards is useful field position, even if Crossman believed more was available. Expecting a touchdown from every return is absurd. Expecting the blocking to survive long enough for the returner to make a defender miss is reasonable. Pittsburgh's coordinator understands the difference, which is why his kickoff explanation was equally revealing.

“Kickoff return-wise, started the game with a nice return, came back on the second one, they kicked it away, we slipped and fell, which disrupts the timing of that play, which it's a timing play to begin with. So when you lose that timing, it disappears… I think Kaden's starting to see some things a little bit better. We just got to continue with him and continue improving on the blocking. And I think there's going to be plays there to be made,” Crossman said.

Kickoff returns work on a narrow clock. The returner reads the ball's placement while blockers move toward assignments and try to create a lane that might exist for only a moment. If a blocker loses his footing, the entire picture can change before Wetjen reaches his intended spot. Crossman didn't identify who slipped, so assigning that mistake to the rookie would be unfair.

The bigger point is less comfortable for the coaching staff. Pittsburgh invested the 121st overall pick in Wetjen because he could change field position, then spent the first month wondering where that ability went. The fourth-round investment was made with the expectation that special teams would become a weapon. A coordinator can point to limited opportunities, but he also has to make the available ones count.

Wetjen arrived with impressive credentials from Iowa, where he won the Johnny "The Jet" Award twice. His 45-yard punt-return touchdown against the Buffalo Bills in the preseason finale demonstrated that his speed and creativity could translate against professional competition. The frustration has been getting enough clean opportunities to see that version of him when the games count.

His role makes patience complicated. A fourth-round pick who contributes almost exclusively as a return specialist faces a different standard than a developmental receiver learning the offense. The Steelers need tangible field-position gains from the job he occupies right now. Sunday's opening return was encouraging because it supplied exactly that.

Even Pittsburgh's victory showed why these margins matter. New Orleans returned one kickoff 42 yards and later tied the contest before halftime. The Steelers eventually secured the win, but special teams can make everybody else's work harder with one poorly executed play.

Head Coach Mike McCarthy wants more production from special teams, so Crossman isn't working with an unlimited runway. There is improvement to build on after Paris. The question is whether that progress becomes dependable execution before another mistake costs Pittsburgh more than field position.

Steelers Must Fix More Than The Man Catching The Ball

Crossman is right to defend Wetjen from judgments based on two punt opportunities. However, Pittsburgh shouldn't hide behind the sample size, either. The penalty and disrupted kickoff blocking were team failures, and the man coordinating those units owns part of the responsibility for correcting them. A return specialist cannot outrun bad timing every Sunday, regardless of what his college highlights promise.

Wetjen still has work to do. Crossman wanted more than 13 yards on the punt he returned, and recognizing a lane means little unless the rookie accelerates through it decisively. The encouraging part is that his coach appears to see improved recognition, which gives Pittsburgh something tangible to develop.

The Steelers head into their next matchup against the Cleveland Browns with evidence that their rookie can create useful field position. The next step belongs to everyone lined up in front of him. If Crossman wants those explosive returns to arrive, Pittsburgh has to stop making its own returner negotiate a traffic jam before he gets started.

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