Tim Benz: Steelers' offense confident that red zone issues will improve in 2023

One way to make the Pittsburgh Steelers red zone scoring issues less of a concern this season would be to score more often from a greater distance.

Sure. That would be a wonderful idea. There are no concerns about getting bogged down in the red zone if you are good enough to score before you get there.

Unfortunately, in 2022, the Steelers weren’t.

According to Sharp Football, the Steelers had just two touchdowns beyond the red zone last year, the fewest in the league.

Hunting for more explosive plays is a stated goal for the Steelers this year. And it should be, considering the club was tied for 23rd in the NFL with the Cleveland Browns at 44 passing plays over 20 yards. Running the ball, the Steelers generated eight such plays, tied for 22nd. They had no runs over 40 yards, and just three passing plays over 40 (tied for last with the Cardinals and Jaguars).

“Any offense, it’d be a benefit to make those explosive plays,” quarterback coach Mike Sullivan said at this week’s minicamp. “When you have a 12-14 play drive, that’s 12-14 opportunities for something bad to happen.”

He said it would reduce the chances for those bad things taking place “if you have a four or five or six play drive. We’d be foolish as coaches not to address that, and focus on it.”

Yeah. That’d be great. But once the Steelers do get inside the opponent’s 20-yard line, they have to be better there and score touchdowns more often. Because, for as much of a slog as it was offensively at times last year, Matt Canada’s offense totaled 52 red zone attempts. That was 16th in the league, right at the NFL average. But the red zone TD percentage of 51.9 was 24th.

No team totaled fewer than the Steelers’ 12 passing touchdowns. Kenny Pickett had just five touchdown passes in the red zone, to go along with a completion percentage of 42.6. Mitch Trubisky had four red zone scoring throws (on 8 of 11 passing) during his time on the field. Receiver Chase Claypool had one on a trick play.

“We’re aware of those issues,” Canada said Wednesday. “We had some missed assignments. It doesn’t matter why we weren’t successful. But the bottom line is we have to be more productive down there. So, as a staff, we spent a lot of time on what that was. We spent a lot of time in meetings and installation. That’s been a primary focus.”

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Based on practice results this spring, though, there does appear to be some cause for optimism. On the last day of organized team activities, Trubisky said that he felt the offense had done some of its best work in practices during red zone drills.

“We’ve had some good red zone periods. Those have probably been our better days at OTAs so far, even though we don’t have pads on. We’ll see going into (minicamp) and also in training camp. We’ve just got to keep working,” Trubisky said last week.

Based on the amount of offseason emphasis the Steelers have placed on bettering their red zone options, that should be the case. They bulked up the offensive line by adding the likes of Broderick Jones, Nate Herbig and Isaac Seumalo to hopefully provide more push on run plays for Najee Harris. Massive rookie tight end Darnell Washington should help in that regard as well. Plus recently acquired 6-foot-2, 210-pound receiver Allen Robinson (who had 22 touchdowns over his first three NFL seasons) could aid as an end zone target.

“In this league, the teams that are successful, those are the ones that are scoring touchdowns in the red zone,” Robinson said after a recent practice. “It’s not good enough getting there and just getting (three) points. We want six points when we get into the red.”

To Robinson’s point, eight of the top 10 teams in terms of red zone efficiency made the playoffs last year.

Like Robinson, Washington, who has a 6-foot-7, 265-pound frame, could prove to be a weapon in the pass game close to the goal line, as well as a blocker.

“Every team should embrace the red zone,” Washington said of the team’s practice emphasis in that part of the field. “Finishing drives, at the end of the day, that’s how you win games putting points on the board. You didn’t march all the way downfield to put no points on the board. You kinda did it for no reason, in a way.”

Receiver George Pickens, who led the team with four touchdown receptions a year ago, and tight end Pat Freiermeuth, who had seven in 2021 with Ben Roethlisberger under center (before dipping to just two in 2022), should be the primary targets this year. But getting help from those other outlets should help as secondary options. To say nothing of maybe at least one or two touchdowns from Diontae Johnson this year. That’d be a nice change from 2022.

As would getting a playoff win. Which hasn’t happened since 2016. Being better near the goal line may be one of the biggest areas of improvement necessary to make that finally happen again in 2023.