Steelers’ offseason begins with plenty of unanswered questions ahead

A half foot of snow isn’t all that greeted the Pittsburgh Steelers upon their return to Pennsylvania early Monday. Boots will seemingly be just as needed to trudge through a deep collection of freshly-packed questions about charting the course of the future of the franchise.

While the peripheral statistics suggest that this roster getting into the playoffs was a formidable display of overachievement, 9-7-1 with a loss on the first weekend of the postseason is well below “The Standard” coach Mike Tomlin preaches for a franchise with six Super Bowl titles.

About 12 hours after a mostly-uncompetitive 42-21 loss at the Kansas City Chiefs ends, a small handful of players offered initial suggestions about how the Steelers can go about closing the gap with the NFL’s elite.

“I think it’s all of us having a great offseason first and foremost,” outside linebacker Alex Highsmith said while speaking in particular about the defense. “I also think just going back to all of us working our butts off to be the best defense we can be.”

Columnist @MarkMaddenX: It's going to take more than one offseason for the Steelers to fix all of their problems. https://t.co/KuROb5LhhV

— Tribune-ReviewSports (@TribSports) January 17, 2022

The defense entered 2021 with expectations it could be one of the NFL’s best, something that was needed because the offense lacked experience beyond its headed-into-retirement quarterback.

But the Steelers’ defensive league rankings were almost as bad as their offense’s. The Steelers were 24^th in yards allowed, last in rushing yards allowed, 19^th in yards per play allowed and 20^th in points allowed.

Offensively, the Steelers ranked 21^st in points, 23^rd in yards, 27^th in net yards per pass attempt and last in rushing yards per game and per play.

Both units were exposed Sunday against the Chiefs: the offense began the game with punts on seven consecutive possessions, and the defense over a mid-game span pulled the opposite trick by allowing a touchdown on six consecutive Kansas City possessions.

“It was mainly execution and details,” defensive lineman Montravius Adams said during a series of player video conference calls with media. “And just staying together. I feel like, in my opinion, we, not that we really came apart, but there were just some missing pieces. I feel like we started the game together. It just wasn’t enough time and we were playing a good team. Those things can’t happen when you play teams like that.”

And they did too often for the Steelers in the just-completed season in which they went 2-6 against teams that made the playoffs. None of the defeats was within a margin of one possession, either. They came by an average of 18.5 points.

Sunday was an encapsulation of the problems for an offense that managed one first-half touchdown over its final eight games this season. The Steelers had a mere two first downs and 44 yards before halftime.

Diontae Johnson, expanding on how the offense had issues with its play calls pic.twitter.com/8UKB68MqZd

— Chris Adamski (@C_AdamskiTrib) January 17, 2022

“It just felt like certain stuff wasn’t going our way at times,” receiver Diontae Johnson said. “At the end of the day, we just do what the coaches tell us to do. All that we talked amongst each other about we see out there, but we just, certain things weren’t going our way. Certain playcalls, we just weren’t getting that we wanted to get the offense going. We can only do what we’re told to do at the end of the day.”

The offense will have a different look in 2022, if only because it almost certainly will have a new quarterback for the first time in 18 years. The defense has a pair of high-end stars in first-team All Pros Cameron Heyward and T.J. Watt, but three starters in the secondary are unrestricted free agents and there are questions along an aging defensive line.

Highsmith, though, insists the Steelers’ defense can return to a status among the NFL elite.

“Without a doubt,” he said. “We have a (prospective) defensive player of the year in T.J. Watt, Cam and (safety Minkah Fitzpatrick) and plenty of guys as well. So, I think we have a strong unit going into the next season. If we stay together and stay healthy I think we will be one of the best defenses in the league next year.

“So I can’t wait for that. I am really looking forward to it. I know we had a good gameplan (Sunday) night; we just weren’t able to finish. That will be big for us next year – being able to finish those games.”

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