While much of the pre-training camp talk has been about the rookies and free agent signings and how they might perform in their first Steelers camp, there's one starter on the offense from last year who will also be going through his first camp: Vance McDonald.
McDonald was acquired via trade just before the 2017 season, giving the Steelers an athletic tight end who was more of a receiving threat than either Xavier Grimble or Jesse James. He played only 10 games in 2017 due to multiple injuries. That prevented him from being able to establish a rhythm in the offense as he also missed training camp with the team.
Let's look at the best component of McDonald's game, his ability as a receiving threat.
McDonald is a much more capable receiver than James or Grimble because of his ability to go up and get the ball, as well as his explosiveness to attack all over the field. He's the extra type of weapon the Steelers could use to expose matchup advantages.
A perfect example of how those advantages could line up for the Steelers came in their home game against the Ravens. Watch how the Ravens start the play with two safeties lined up deep. They drop back into deep Cover 2 schemes, leaving the linebackers to cover in the middle of the field.
McDonald runs a deep post to split the middle of the field and the Ravens' linebacker can only hope to contend for the high pass from Ben Roethlisberger. Obviously, McDonald wins that battle:
One of the biggest ways the Steelers can manipulate opposing defenses is to force their safeties to help against the Steelers' talented receiving corps. That includes making them drop back into those deep Cover 2 assignments. Antonio Brown and JuJu Smith-Schuster both made a number of big plays last season, so defenses know that it would be a big risk to place a single safety in deep coverage, as that means only one side of the field can get help should the Steelers threaten with the deep ball.
This is where McDonald comes in, as teams vacate the middle of the of the field with their best cover men. That pits him against linebackers who don't specialize in covering tight ends.
Here's another example from the first game against the Bengals. Again, look at where those Bengals safeties are lined up and where they go at the snap of the ball. They're flying back, each covering a half of the field (hence the term, Cover 2).
That's where McDonald can run a sharp route and challenge the coverage skills of the linebackers, as he does on this play as he picks up a huge gain:
The biggest factor of having a tight end like McDonald is for those moments when he can stretch the field. However, tight ends have to be the double-threat of a receiver and blocker in the run game. This forces defenses to consider either possibility and put them into a guessing game as to what the offense is planning.
McDonald was not the best blocker with the 49ers, but he showed he could be a capable blocker at the point of attack last season. Watch how he starts on the right edge of the Steelers' line and waits for the linebackers to flow to him. He holds his ground and locks his hands inside the frame of his man and drives him down the field.
When teams see this on tape, it could discourage them from lining up safeties directly over top of McDonald for fear that he could dominate them if he's going to block. This opens up more matchup opportunities in the passing game for the Steelers as linebackers have to be those players:
Having a balanced attack is vital to the Steelers being able to maximize the opportunities for their star players in Brown and Le'Veon Bell. McDonald can be a major piece in that balance because of how he can contribute to both facets of the offense.
It can also help the Steelers completely fool defenses into bringing out packages that expose even more weaknesses for Roethlisberger to exploit.
Take this example from last year's game against the Chiefs when the Steelers were backed up against their own end zone. They brought out a heavy package with an extra lineman and multiple tight ends, forcing the Chiefs to bring out more linebackers and bigger players in return.
This limits the number of defensive backs on the field and gives McDonald the opportunity to take advantage of someone who's not good in coverage, like he does to Justin Houston here.
Houston is at his best when he's blitzing and stopping the run, but when he has to run with McDonald down the field, he is out of his element. McDonald is even properly chipped at the line of scrimmage and he still gets free downfield and gets the Steelers much better field position:
These are basic methods the Steelers were able to use last year without developing chemistry for McDonald in the offense. Look for McDonald in training camp during those many red zone drills Mike Tomlin loves to run, and that might be a huge indicator for how impactful he can be on the season.