By now, the Pittsburgh Steelers offensive struggles are painfully obvious. They've firmly established themselves as one of the worst offenses in the NFL, consistently failing to put up points. They rank in the bottom-five of the league in points per game, total yards per game, and several other major offensive categories.
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Any metric you want to use, the Steelers offense is in the bottom of the league. The players haven't executed to their full capabilities. Offensive coordinator Matt Canada continues to show he's just not a competent coach in this league. The team has failed to run the ball at all, something that has frankly been a problem since the days of Le'Veon Bell.
That seems to be the stem of its issues, as running back Najee Harris hasn't been able to get anything going in his sophomore season. Harris, who had quite the workload in his rookie season, has an idea for getting everyone going. When speaking to reporters on Friday, he told Joe Rutter of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review that he spoke to Canada about his idea during the team's bye week:
"I talked to them and thought we should run more routes out of the backfield from a running back standpoint," Harris said via Rutter. "I don’t know what is going to happen from there."
Credit: Jordan Schofield/SteelerNation (JSKO_PHOTO Twitter)
This season, quarterbacks Kenny Pickett and Mitch Trubisky haven't gotten the the running backs involved much at all in the passing game. That's contrary to the 2021 season, as Ben Roethlisberger used Harris a ton in the flat to dump it off. Perhaps this could jumpstart something in this offense, as Harris caught 74 balls on 94 targets for 467 receiving yards in 2021. Halfway through this season, Harris has 24 catches for a measly 112 yards.
Harris wasn't just referring to himself getting more targets either, as he thinks backup rookie RB Jaylen Warren should be more involved as well. Warren has caught 12 of his 14 targets this season for 88 yards, showing to be a bit more effective than Harris. When your running game is struggling, getting short completions can help get past that issue a little bit.
Through eight games, Harris is averaging just 3.3 yards per carry on 108 attempts. Those are concerning numbers for a guy that was supposed to take a leap forward this season. In his rookie year, he averaged 3.9 yards per carry, not exactly impressive either. While the run blocking hasn't been particularly great, Harris has been disappointing in his own right. On the contrary, Warren's effectiveness (5.3 YPC) has caused for some debate amongst fans and coaches on who should start at RB.
Steelers running back Jaylen Warren (#30) warms up prior to a 2022 preseason game at Acrisure Stadium. | Credit: Jordan Schofield/SteelerNation (JSKO_PHOTO Twitter)
Do you agree with Harris' comments on needing to target the RB's more? Do you think this could help jumpstart the offense? What are your thoughts on what the snap count should look like between the two running backs? Are you concerned about the long-term outlook for Harris? As usual, share your thoughts in the comment section below and interact with our social media sites!
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