Football Footnotes: How the Steelers can improve their offense during the bye

The Pittsburgh Steelers players won’t be on the field during the bye week. But hopefully the coaches are using the extra time to figure out ways to improve the offense.

As good as 3-1 may feel right now, there is plenty of room for improvement, particularly on that side of the ball.

As Week 5 opens, the Steelers are 29th in total yards with 1,054. They are 26th in passing yards at 183.5. With 80 yards per contest rushing, they are 31st.

Yet somehow, at 24 points per game, they are just about in the middle of the league.

That’s not a sustainable recipe. And the players know it.

“Figure out what we can get better at individually and collectively,” tight end Pat Freiermuth said of the team’s goals during the bye. “Then come back off the bye knowing that we have (13) weeks for the rest of the season. Take a couple of days and mentally reset for a long season ahead.”

That season will feel especially long if the Steelers keep having to work so hard to score the few points they are managing to score.

For this Friday’s “Football Footnotes,” we came up with some ways to make that process easier.

Beat the bushes

If Calvin Austin is going to be out for a while, then they need to find another receiving option.

We kept hearing that Roman Wilson has progressed. They need to prove it. So does he.

We were perpetually told in training camp that Scotty Miller and Ben Skowronek are more than merely depth special teamers. Let’s see it.

If not, go get someone. If it takes draft compensation to do it, fine. Get creative.

“I want to be in the game on offense because I know what I can bring,” Skowronek said. “But I feel like there are a lot more ways to affect the game than just catching balls.

“As a competitor, you obviously want the ball in your hands, but I don’t think I’m like any other receiver in the league. I truly don’t care how many catches I have.”

From Skowronek’s standpoint, frankly, neither do I. But it has to come from somewhere.

Get the ball to the tight ends

For a team that was supposed to be as tight-end oriented as this one is, they don’t contribute very much in the passing game.

Freiermuth and Jonnu Smith combined for just six catches and 35 yards the past two weeks.

Freiermuth said he sees the potential for the tight ends to step up in Austin’s absence.

“We have a really diverse tight end room,” he said. “We have a lot of skill sets. You guys have seen that in the past couple of weeks. The more opportunity for other guys will be great.”

Darnell Washington was a bit more noticeable Sunday with three catches for 20 yards. And I guess Connor Heyward is the Tush Push specialist now.

But if this team is not going to have another WR to complement DK Metcalf, and Austin is hurt for a while, then the tight ends need to be featured as much as we were told they would be.

Scheme up some more YAC opportunities for Metcalf

Metcalf has been good in two areas this season. The first is the red zone. He has a pair of close-range touchdowns.

The other is when he catches passes in space and has room to run after he secures them. Entering Week 5, no wide receiver in the NFL has more yards after the catch than Metcalf’s 189. The only four players with more than him are running backs: Bijan Robinson (Falcons), Bucky Irving (Buccaneers), Christian McCaffrey (49ers) and De’Von Achane (Dolphins).

Of course, 80 of those yards came on one play in Ireland.

RODGERS TO METCALF. 80 YARD TOUCHDOWN.

MINvsPIT on @nflnetwork
Also streaming on @NFLPlus pic.twitter.com/Y4jelTbNJ1

— NFL (@NFL) September 28, 2025

Sixty-eight of those yards came in Week 1. The two games in between were a struggle to get the ball to Metcalf in any form or fashion. He totaled just six catches and 52 yards.

Offensive coordinator Arthur Smith scripted some home run calls that he knew would result in Aaron Rodgers hitting Metcalf in stride with room to roam.

Smith needs to swing for the fences again over the next two weeks and figure out ways to keep his $150 million physical specimen heavily involved against two wobbling division rivals from Cleveland and Cincinnati coming out of the bye.

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Push the ball down the field

Naturally, this means figuring out a way to protect Rodgers long enough so that he has a fighting chance to do so. Stabilizing this offensive line is more than a one-week job.

Thus far, Rodgers has been his own best protector by getting rid of the ball at the rate of 2.52 seconds per throw (via NextGen Stats). That’s the fastest in the NFL.

His second-best protector has been Smith, who is designing an offense where Rodgers only has to throw the ball 4.9 yards in the air per attempt — the shortest in the NFL.

But that approach limits the explosiveness in the offense on plays when Metcalf (or Jaylen Warren) doesn’t have a lot of open grass to exploit.

At some point, the Steelers have to begin taking a few more shots down the field. It’s not an offense that is good enough to be so precise, so often to win consistently without chunk plays.

Bottle last week’s run game

The Steelers averaged 4.5 yards per carry against the Vikings last week. That’s their best effort since the Christmas Day game against the Kansas City Chiefs.

The easiest analysis is to simply say it’s all about Kenneth Gainwell taking over at running back.

That would, in fact, be too easy. His 99 yards on 19 attempts were both career highs. You can’t count on that every week from him.

That’s not to say you can count on it from Warren either, mind you. The blocking was significantly better up front, and that has to continue.

Perhaps that means implementing more of the jumbo set with offensive lineman Spencer Anderson serving as an extra tight end.

“In years past, sometimes people used that jumbo tight end — or extra lineman — and it could limit you. But Spencer is such a good athlete. We looked at it, and the way we wanted to attack (Minnesota) and some of the things we wanted to go after,” Smith said. “You put him and Darnell together, and then you put him next in one of the tackles, that’s 1,000 pounds over there.”

Especially if Rodgers isn’t going to throw the ball much more than 4.5 yards per try in the air, then the running game better yield close to 4.5 yards per carry more often.

If loading up with the extra lineman is what has to happen, so be it.

Listen: This week’s Fantasy Sports podcast with Jeff Erickson of RotoWire