Offense appears powerful
season, Roethlisberger is 36 and Brown is 30. It won’t be their last chance to win a Super Bowl, but it might be their best chance in years.
They lost only wide receiver Martavis Bryant and No. 3 tackle Chris Hubbard from an offense last season that ranked third overall in the NFL.
They can do better. They might have to.
Although that offense tied for the most points scored in its storied playoff history, they lost, 45-42, to Jacksonville at home because of two early turnovers and a defense that was not up to the task. Their 545 offensive yards against the Jaguars were the most in their postseason history. The 462 yards passing broke their postseason record by 113.
The “weakest” part of a strong offense was tight end, although Jesse James caught 43 passes a year ago. That position should be strengthened because Vance McDonald, acquired in a trade with San Francisco last Aug. 29, now is assimilated with the offense, and presumably he can stay healthier in 2018. He showed his potential in that playoff game against Jacksonville by leading the Steelers with 10 catches for 112 yards. He missed six games last season because of injuries.
James Washington, their second-round draft pick, had a strong spring as the likely replacement for Bryant at No. 3 in the pecking order behind Brown and JuJu Smith-Schuster.
As strange as it may sound with a player such as Bell at the position, the Steelers need to improve their ground game, at least in its efficiency. Bell finished third in the NFL with 1,291 yards rushing and might have become the first Steelers back in 71 years to win the NFL rushing title had he not been rested in the season finale.
But the Steelers ranked just 20th in the league in rushing with an average of 104.2 per game, and not just because they were the No. 3 passing team in the NFL. Their average per rush of 3.8 yards tied for 25th in the league.
Bell’s average slipped to 4.0 yards per carry, down nearly one full yard per carry from his two previous seasons, when he each averaged 4.9. The Steelers also seemed to have lost some faith in giving him the ball in short yardage on third downs.
They did so on third or fourth down with 1 or 2 yards to go just 11 times all last season, although he picked up the first down on nine of those. He ran four times from the 1 and scored on each, but those came on first or second down. They never gave him the ball at 1 to 3 yards from the goal line on third or fourth down last season.
James Conner, Bell’s little-used backup last season, never got the ball in a shortyardage situation among his 32 carries. The shortest was a third-and-4 against Jacksonville in which he ran for 3.
All of this even though they have one of their best lines ever, packed with veterans, which includes three Pro Bowlers.
So, the Steelers need to improve their ground game to become an even more powerful offense. Conner, who had knee surgery in December, had a good spring and looked to be in great shape. They may have more confidence playing him in his second season, although they rarely have taken Bell off the field, even with a veteran such as LeGarrette Blount behind him.
They drafted do-it-all back Jaylen Samuels in the fifth round, and he likely will mimic many of Bell’s plays during the preseason as a runner and receiver.
The biggest change on offense comes at coordinator, where Randy Fichtner steps up from his job as quarterbacks coach to replace the departed Todd Haley.
Fichtner won’t radically change the offense, but he will put his imprint on it.
Maybe he’ll even run Bell and/or Conner in short yardage more often, and allow Roethlisberger to run the occasional quarterback sneak