Mike Tomlin prefers Steelers keep teams guessing week-to-week in lieu of having ‘identity’

What are the 2023 Pittsburgh Steelers? Do they have an “identity?”

Coach Mike Tomlin would prefer they don’t, at least not in regards to schematics or tendencies.

Seven weeks and six games into the season, the Steelers have poor statistical rankings (31st in total offense, 30th in total defense) but a decidedly “above-the-line” record of 4-2.

So that begs the question of the Steelers’ identity. It’s an oft-referenced query for fans and pundits, so Tomlin was asked during his weekly news conference Tuesday what he believed was the identity of this season’s team.

“I think in 2023, when you’re talking about team identity, you’re talking more intangible-quality things,” Tomlin said. “A grit, a mindset, the approach in which you take the circumstances where, are you a calculated risk-taking group? Are you a fundamentalist group? Are you a ‘small-menu’ (list of plays/formations) group? Those are the things that really kind of comprise identity today.”

The Steelers, according to teamrankings.com, are almost exactly in the middle of the league pack in pass/run play rate (their 58.4% pass rate ranks 15th, 41.6% run rate ranks 17th). League data have the Steelers play selection on first-and-10 plays at 48.6% run and 51.4% pass.

Over the offseason, several members of the Steelers brass talked about improving the team’s physicality. The signing of bruising veteran guard Isaac Seumalo and drafting of offensive tackle Broderick Jones and elite blocking tight end Darnell Washington buttressed the idea the Steelers wanted to be identified for being a strong rushing offensive team.

Even if that was the case, Tomlin — during Week 8 and with the Jacksonville Jaguars coming to town Sunday — isn’t willing to acknowledge that.

“You can have an agenda in which you desire, but there are things that people can do to push you off that agenda regardless of what your intentions are in 2023,” Tomlin said. “If people play open grass (field position near midfield) goal line (defensive package), then chances are you’re going to have a difficult time running the football, for example. And that’s what the Rams were willing to do (during Sunday’s game), for example.”

Tomlin complimented the Rams for showing the Steelers a different defensive look than they were accustomed to early during Sunday’s meeting in Inglewood, Calif.

At halftime, the Steelers had netted 29 rushing yards on 10 carries.

“By virtue of the people that we have on the field, your run game is going to be difficult today, if you choose to do so,” Tomlin said, mimicking what the Rams were saying. “And so, from time to time, you’re going to choose to fight that fight, sometimes you’re not. Those are just the strategic components of today’s game, and that’s why it makes declaration of identity a stupid endeavor at this juncture.”

The Steelers, too, changed some tendencies during Sunday’s game. Patrick Peterson, for example, according to Pro Football Focus played by far more as the slot corner (29 snaps) than he had in any game this season. He also for the first time as a Steeler played extensively on the right side of the defense.

That was in part facilitated by rookie cornerback Joey Porter Jr. playing a career-high 53 defensive snaps, and the Steelers prefer to keep him on the left side.

Also Sunday, star outside linebacker T.J. Watt lined up on the right side of the defense (on three occasions) for the first time this season. Watt hadn’t rushed from the right side of the defense for a snap at all since late in 2021. He hadn’t taken at least three snaps from the right side in a game since 2019.

All the better to keep teams guessing. After all, that’s more Tomlin’s style than to publicly declare an “identity.”

“There’s so much specialization in today’s game, it just is,” Tomlin said. “The utilization of people in very specific places on offense and defense. It makes it a matchup game. It makes it a situational game.”

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