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The Pittsburgh Steelers recently hired a new offensive coordinator, landing on former Atlanta Falcons head coach Arthur Smith as the man to succeed Matt Canada, who was fired midway through the 2023 season. Smith’s offenses in Atlanta were mostly pretty good during his first two seasons, but collapsed this year under the weight of poor quarterback play and suboptimal utilization of the team’s skill-position players.
Pittsburgh is all too familiar with each of those issues, as they plagued the team during Canada’s run in control of the offense and down the stretch of this season after he was replaced. But Steelers owner and president Art Rooney II thinks they’ll be able to form a strong offense in the future — or at least, that they are better-equipped to do so now than they were a year ago.
“I do feel that we’re closer this year at this stage of the game than we were at this point last year,” Rooney said, according to ESPN. “I think we have a core group of players that we can compete with. I think the biggest thing we need is quality play at the quarterback position.”
Well, if the biggest thing you need is quality play at the quarterback position, then you are probably not close at all to having a good offense. Quality play at quarterback is the single-most important determining factor in offensive performance. Without it, you are too far behind the eight-ball to get there. But Rooney doesn’t think that way. He wants the Steelers to be like Steelers teams of old.
“I think we have an idea of what we want the Steeler offense to look like,” Rooney said. What does that mean? Mostly, that they should build their offense first and foremost around their running back duo of Najee Harris and Jaylen Warren.
“I think we have two high-performing running backs in Najee and Jaylen and they, along with an improving offensive line, can be the foundation of success going forward,” Rooney said.
The…
Source link : https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/steelers-owner-believes-teams-running-back-duo-can-be-the-foundation-of-success-going-forward/
Author : Jared Dubin
Publish date : 2024-01-31 17:39:20
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