Our red-zone offense inside the 10-yard line is going to be very good in 2026

Our red-zone offense inside the 10-yard line is going to be very good in 2026.

We have McCarthy calling the plays, and his red-zone performance has been excellent.

We’re pairing him with:

A big (6'4") wide receiver who wins contested catches and jump balls (DK)

A very quick, nimble wide receiver who gets open in a hurry (Wilson)

A towering 6'7" tight end (Washington) who is a giant as a receiver. He takes up a ton of space, boxes out defenders, and moves people better than any tight end in football as a blocker.


In my opinion, all four of these guys are extremely tough to match up against. McCarthy and Wilson are two big new additions to the red zone offense in 2026. Rodgers has to be smiling right now.

Just a hunch, Boswell won't be kicking many 20-30 yard field goals this year.

 

I hope you're right. We do have weapons, but we have had weapons for a while and couldn't get it done. Let's hope the fresh approach changes things.

 

We were top 10 last year if I remember correctly

 

18th

https://www.teamrankings.com/nfl/stat/red-zone-scoring-pct

Just lob the ball to Darnell

 

Curious why you chose 'inside the 10 yd line' instead of the 20?

 

Because I think the 2026 Steelers have a good mix of play-calling and players that can be featured inside the 10 (or inside the 20), giving us lots of options. McCarthy has historically been aggressive near the goal line, and the reunion with Aaron Rodgers should help maximize those packages. The mix of personnel we have and the scheme especially featuring the tight ends and receivers (DK Metcalf, Darnell Washington, and Roman Wilson) gives us very good one-on-one matchups and real domination potential in the red zone, as these men are tough to cover up close! We have a good jump-ball guy, a towering monster of a man who is simply too tall / wide for most defenders to cover in tight spaces, and a very quick guy who can win on slants. Those are three tough matchups for any defense, and we have all three of them. This is only my opinion.

 

Hell, I just hope we can get to the 10

 

This year's offense will look like an aerial circus when you compare it against the Canada - Artie Smith eras.

 

Get it in that man's hands any way you can.

ETA: In short yardage that is.

 

Hopefully.

Rodgers was good for us in the red zone last season IIRC. Especially compared to everything post Ben.

Presumably the O will be better with an offensive minded coach.

 

It is going to be strange to see aggressive play calling. Under Tomlin the philosophy was once we reached the opponent's 40 yard we knew we were in Boz's range and guaranteed 3 points so don't do anything risky. There is a positive to playing that way and will win against most teams but last year we were 1-5 against playoff teams and the one win was when we won the turnover battle 5-0.

 

It will be strange to see it (if it happens).

We got some years with both Tomlin (+Arians) and Cowher (+Erhardt...the one time in my life I remember us having a truely innovative offense). But not a lot since I started really paying attention to the Steelers (tail end of Noll).

 

Nothing wrong with huge guys celebrating their height (Washington is 6'7").

Listed at 264 on ESPN...which has about the same relationship to reality as the weights we used to post for Big Snack.

 

Ok I just looked at a different place , and they were 11th.

 

@jeh1856

 

Does that include field goals

If so don't you agree that is a pretty worthless statistic

 

I don't know.
Also I was wrong anyway, I thought they were in the top 10, and from everything I can find from 4 different places, they were 11th. So I was wrong, but 11th was way higher than the previous year of 29th. So they did improve.

 

What i like about McCarghy is he is a pass to setup the run kind of coach, so maybe we get to the red zone more often.

I’d like to see more use of a FB, that could also help in the redzone. I understand McCarthy knows what a FB is. Our previous coach apparently didnt.

 

Can't believe they kicked many FGs inside the 20 but too lazy to check today.

 

Well the reason I asked is I found two different rankings

One was for red zone “scoring”

The other was for red zone “scoring a touchdown”

My personal thought is if you are in the red zone and settling for field goals that is not a ranking to brag about