Things I would consider doing to fix the Steelers offense.

FWIW, I think Smith was just a sweetener in the trade. Ramsey was the real piece.

There were some on the board I was posting on at the time who were enamored with Smith's one year highs (when he was old, but in a very special circumstance) talking about how it was OK that we traded away Pickens with no plans for a WR2 because we traded for Smith. Others pointed out that if you took that outlier year out, he was just an older, slightly worse version of Freiermuth. Good for depth in case someone got hurt, but it was likely that the combination of PF and JS would be (much?) less than 2x PF last year.

And the worst part is that Smith runs the offense like a peewee soccer team, so everyone is going to get snaps...which might mean less Washington, which is the opposite of what pretty much everyone on that board wanted. We started the year like that, but I think Smith has realized that Washington is the most important TE on the team and should be getting the most snaps.

Washington snap% 1st three games: 46.4%, 37.1%, 37.0% (avg 40.2%)
Washington snap% Last three games: 66.1%, 48.1%, 70.8% (avg 61.7%)

Smith snap% 1st three games: 66.1%, 56.5%, 83.3% (avg 68.6%)
Smith snap% Last three games: 40.3%, 67.3%, 53.8% (avg 53.8%)


PF snap% 1st three games: 50.0%, 50.0%, 70.4% (avg 56.8%)
PF snap% Last three games: 46.8%, 50.0%, 46.2% (avg 47.7%)

We're already playing Washington more than all the other TEs (I'd be ok with his usage still increasing). But unfortunately, that seems to be coming from PF as well as JS. I think Joel's point about TE usage should also include giving PF more of Smith's snaps (since we seem to have mostly corrected the underusing Washington issue).

PF is just better than JS. And I don't think it's particularly close. Yet PF is the TE we are using the least.

Stats comparison PF vs JS.

• Targets: JS 38 PF 29
• Recs: JS 26 PF 23
• Catch%: JS 68.4% PF 79.3%
• Yards: JS 163 PF 279
• Y/R: JS 6.3 PF 12.1
• Y/Trg: JS 4.3 PF 9.6
• TD: JS 2 PF 3
• 1stD: JS 8 PF 10
• Succ%: JS 42.1 PF 58.6

Despite having almost 25% fewer targets, PF has has > 100 more yards, almost 2x more Y/R, more than 2x more T/Trg, more TDs (but this can be situational), more 1st downs, and a much higher success rate. PF also has a much better catch%.

 

Washington is still being used mostly as a blocker. The problem with Smith is that A. Smith has a history with the guy. This is so similar to Smith's use of Patterson last year where he was pretty useless but Smith still put him in because of prior relationship.

 

I would like to have any of those coaches as OC.... Daboll, McDaniels, Stefansky or Kingsbury if Arthur Smith gets hired as a head coach again. I said at this point in time in 2020's... I'd prefer any of those coaches over Tomlin. Popcorn was the right coach at the right time in 2007.... but he should have been fired after 2017, IMO.

Strange New Worlds is excellent... 3 seasons so far, season 4 in 2026. It's the story of the Enterprise, 10 years before Kirk takes command. There's several familiar characters in their younger years from original TV show/movies. I like all Star Trek TV shows.... Discovery is my least favorite. DS9, Voyager and TNG are my favorites... but Enterprise is damn good.

Wish they would do a show about Picard before he was captain of Enterprise D.... Captain of the Stargazer!

Starfleet Academy starts in January on Paramount.

 

Yep. Like this years Patterson. But JS hasn't declined as bad at Patterson had.

Nice to see the %age routes run. I think this is more evidence that JS is really just PF (but worse!).

I think part of the argument for JS going into the season was that he was somewhat better at blocking than PF. But we're having them run routes at the same rate (just PF does much more with the routes he runs).

But maybe the situations are different? If they trust JS more as a blocker, maybe that's why they keep him in more?

But the preseason idea that was floated around (hope I guess) that he'd be more like a pseudo-WR and could do more with the targets he got vs. PF seems to be pretty clearly incorrect.

 

Nice to hear this.

Haven't seen SNW yet. But I kind of soured on Star Trek content with most of the newer shows (e.g. Picard, Discovery).

The only "new" Star Trek show that I've seen that I liked Prodigy (watched it with my kids). But sadly, it was cancelled (again, I guess since Netflix picked it up after the first time it was cancelled).

I think it's kind of for kids in the same way that the Clone Wars TV show was for kids. Animated, but still good stories.

Wish Prodigy could have stuck around longer because I think there were some cool ideas it was exploring.

But it was nice because it was a gateway to TNG for my kids. So I bought a used copy of the series on DVD.

When we finish that, maybe I'll give SNW a try.

 

Is it a physical or a technique issue with him though? If it's technique, maybe some good coaching can fix ........never mind

 

He's also been hearing footsteps lately. I worry that his injury is going to cause him to be even worse now that it's confirmed. I can also see Chicago coming after him harder because of it. And if Rogers actually suffers a worsening of his injury, now we're in a situation where he's out for a longer period of time. I'm in favor of letting him rest and be healthy. We need a healthy quarterback as much as we need a good quarterback.

 

I wanted Houston's head coach. Tomlin was in a contract year when he became available. I was really hoping we would pick him up. But then they gave Tomlin an extension......grrrrrrr

 

Ryans is a great defensive coach... but I think Steelers should go with HC with background in offense and hire the best DC available like Broncos, Eagles, Rams and Chiefs have done. This method wins Super Bowls in today's NFL.

Broncos, Eagles, Rams and Chiefs all have badass, proven Defensive Coordinators...like Lebeau was back in the day.

 

Tomlin has never had a bad team

Good coaches are hard to find so I don’t see Mr Rooney making a change until things get bad

Right or wrong

 

Never seen a coach do less with more than Tomlin. Especially during the Killer B's era. Cowher was the opposite from '92-'03... he did more with less.

 

Tomlin greatly under performed with Ben

Ben greatly underperformed with the talent he had

 

Agree. Ben could have played better vs bottom feeders. He was partly responsible for losing to teams we should beat handily. Defense played a part too... with terrible execution.

 

Yeah, I know that you are right. I have often wondered what would constitute a bad enough situation to prompt the Rooneys to look. Honestly, I think Tomlin will retire as HC in Pittsburgh. It would take a long stretch of bad seasons to overcome 19 years of winning seasons. The lack of Lombardi trophies and the poor playoff success have not been enough to do it yet, so I imagine it would take several years in a row of losing records with a few 3 and 4 win seasons in the mix to get to that point. Outside of that, the only thing that would do it is a loss of revenue. The fans would have to turn on the Steelers, but I don't see that happening either.

And at the end of the day, as you alluded to, Tomlin is not a bad coach. He is just too conservative and uninspired IMO. Perhaps the Rooneys could step in and push a new DC on team. I am still not anti Arthur Smith. I think he has potential but is fighting against roster issues. He does not have the franchise QB, while I think the talent is there...the oline still needs work, and we are lacking in the WR department.

 

And I the greatest assassin, because I have beat, and collected everything on the hardest level of the 1st five Assassin Creeds. LoL

 

Do You mean like the MVPs, J. Allen, and Lamar Jackson??
I've seen both lose to teams that most think they shouldn't have. If You watch football enough, You will see this all the time. Just like I heard all the we had 5 turnover, and barely won. Did anyone see the Rams with the so called HC genius get 4 turnovers last week, and won by 2 points. The difference is people seem to only see this in the Steelers

 

I think the last video game I played was pong