PA Passing...why do the Steelers suck?

So...heard this on Scouts Eye this morning.


(PA discussion starts at 3:30, but YMMV because I'm running ublock and Untrap for youtube in firefox).

Here's my summary of the PA stuff from this episode.

I think most people know that league wide PA passing is generally very effective. And it's not just for teams that are good at running the ball.

Here's a really good blog post about PA passing and how it's basically always good.

Unless you're the Steelers.

Stats from 2025

• 4.2 yards / pass with PA.
• 6.5 yards / pass without PA.
• Apparently no other O in the league had a difference with / without over 0.5 yards. and we have a 2.3 yard difference.

If you only look at our PA passes, we were the worst passing offense in the league.
But we were above average for our non-PA plays.

They didn't give sample sizes, so maybe this is just a wonky small sample thing?

But here's the even crazier part.

It's not just that we were worse when using PA passing last season. This was the 11th season in a row where we were worse when PA passing vs. non-PA passing. This is not the expected outcome for any one season. But to have this result 11 years in a row seems kind of crazy.

Probably important to say that most of the last 11 years has been spent with QBs who were old (Ben, Wilson, Rodgers). So it's probably hard for them to get under center. And I think that it's been shown that PA passing is much more effective under center vs. in shotgun / pistol.

And we also know that Kenny played very little under center in college...I think I remember reading that he had only a handful of non-kneel down plays under center as a senior? So maybe that's part of it too?

Obviously the HC was constant for those 11 years too.

Anyway...was wondering if anyone here had thoughts on why we've been consistently bad at something that is generally beneficial across the league.

 

PA passing often requires the QB to turn his back to the Defense it also gives Defenders more time to get near your QB.. We have a old gunslinger and we should not be doing much PA..Don't get me wrong I love PA we are just not built for it right now.

also as to why so bad for so long is PA is meant to suck the LB'S up and then throw over top of them..Coach Tomlin has stated many times he doesnt like throwing in that area of the field..So I am sure that contributed to why we are so bad at it..

 

For one wasn't it reported Ben didn't like PA, I'm not sure about Rodgers maybe he's just too old .

 

If they ran PA with Pickett, he would've just run into another sack .

 

Add to this that PA out of the gun is far more effective if your QB can threaten to run. Steelers haven't had that in a big long time.

I know I harp on MOF passing but the Steelers were actually around average in attempts in some of those years.

 

We have a whole new coaching staff

And previous statistic is irrelevant

Especially on offense

 

Ben didnt like playing under center because he had to turn his back to the defense.

 

And was too old to move

 

Todd Haley was pretty big on PA passing but Ben ran him out of town. Haley didn’t do himself any favors due to his stubborn personality but he was far better than he was ever given credit for.

 

Haley taught required Ben to check down

Once he left that pretty much came to an end