Forget about all of the other issues facing the Steelers this offseason. They certainly won't do so.
But in many ways, those issues will take a back seat to the team's biggest problem from 2020 -- the complete inability to run the ball effectively.
The Steelers ranked 32nd in the NFL in rushing in 2020. Fixing that will be the main focus of everything the Steelers do in the offseason.
Strange thing about it, it wasn't the case all season. The Steelers averaged 136.8 rushing yards per game through the first five weeks of the season before seeing that fall to 59.9 rushing yards per game in their final 12 games, including the playoffs.
That's really hard to do, especially considering they were largely healthy on the offensive line and at running back over the final 12 games after not being so early in the season.
Some of that can be attributed to teams catching on to what the Steelers were doing offensively, The short, quick passing game that worked early in the season caught opponents off guard. But as the season wore on, opponents crept closer and closer to the line of scrimmage, slowing down the running game in the process.
And part of it was because some of the jet sweeps and end arounds the Steelers ran early in the season as part of then-quarterbacks coach Matt Canada's addition to the coaching staff weren't working as well.
Now, however, Canada takes over as the offensive coordinator in place of fired Randy Fichtner, so the Steelers won't dip their toe into the Canada offense. They'll be all in.
What might that mean in 2021? To be honest, it might take a little time to implement, particularly from a personnel standpoint, something general manager Kevin Colbert admitted this week.
"Coach (Mike Tomlin) and I have talked about that with Matt taking over, will we be looking at different players differently?" Colbert said. "Coach is always going to talk about what we have and what they can adapt to do what we currently have. Maybe as we get down the road in the future, and we’re deciding on a wide receiver type or a running back type or a quarterback type or an offensive lineman, we may shift as we evolve and learn what coach Canada’s offense is about. We saw it work in the college ranks, and we saw what kind of players he used in different roles.
"Can we adjust to that as we go on? Yeah. Will we adjust immediately? No. I know coach Tomlin will do what our players can do the best under coach Canada’s offense and the schematics that he puts together. Over time, I think we can adjust it. But right out of the gate, it’s hard to make those kind of adjustments."
Canada's offensive style in multiple stops over 25 years of coaching at the collegiate level included plenty of pre-snap motion and misdirection. That does require some mobility from the quarterback on play-action and bootlegs, but largely good players are good players. For example, his offense at Pitt in 2016 featured James Conner at running back. His offense at Maryland in 2018 featured running back Anthony McFarland.
The two, who were teammates last season with the Steelers, couldn't be more different as running backs. Conner is more of a power back, while McFarland's game is predicated on speed.
However the Steelers choose to move forward, fixing that running game is critical.
And while Colbert is correct in his assessment that the Steelers can't get everything they need to build things the way Canada would necessarily prefer in one offseason, they can start with a makeover on the offensive line.
Center Maurkice Pouncey has retired. Left tackle Alejandro Villanueva, left guard Matt Feiler and Zach Banner, who began the season as the starting right tackle before suffering a torn ACL in the regular season opener, all are headed toward unrestricted free agency. Of the team's opening day starters on the offensive line, only right guard David DeCastro is currently under contract, though the team is expected to re-sign Banner before the start of free agency.
Kevin Dotson, a fourth-round pick in 2020, Chuks Okorafor and DeCastro all return, but the Steelers could have holes at left tackle and center that will need to be filled through the draft or in free agency.
"Al is a free agent, Matt Feiler is a free agent, Maurkice has retired, Zach Banner is coming off an ACL, so it is an uncertain group that we have upfront," Colbert said. "Again, I don't know where the free agency part will go for both Matt and Al. We know Maurkice won't be back with us. How that comes together, it will be ongoing. The draft itself, it is stronger at the tackle position than it is at the interior. Center and guard, traditionally, is not a very strong group. In any draft, the tackles are unusually deep this year. I think we can add players through the draft. Hopefully, we will be able to do some type of business in free agency. And we are always going to look at our own players first."
Compounding the issue -- or perhaps clearing it up -- is the fact Conner also is a free agent and was clearly the Steelers' best running back last season. He averaged 4.2 yards per carry, while the other running backs on the roster all averaged 3.4 yards per carry or less.
"I will look at it from the personnel standpoint," Colbert said of the run game. "And the group of guys we had last year -- the offensive line, the running backs, the wide receivers, the quarterbacks -- it did not produce a good running game. I think schematically, that's up for the coaches and up to coach Tomlin to figure that. And my input would be if we need to do certain things schematically, these are the types of players that may be available to help us achieve that."
When you rank 32nd in the NFL as the Steelers did in 2020, there's nowhere else to go but up. Especially when the team averaged 84.4 yards rushing per game.
Derrick Henry, Dalvin Cook and Nick Chubb all averaged more yards rushing per game last season on their own. All, coincidentally, are former second-round draft picks. Of the NFL's top 10 rushers in 2020, nine were selected in the second round or later. The 10th, the Raiders' Josh Jacobs, was a late first-round draft pick.
But there's little doubt the Steelers need an infusion of talent both at running back and on the offensive line.
"You can't say the runners weren't good enough, or the quarterbacks weren't good enough, or the line wasn't good enough," Colbert said. "To put out the kind of running game we did, no one was good enough. And again, that is a collective effort. We need to be better, quite honestly, just in reference to what (Tomlin) was talking about; we need to finish. And I think having a strong running game helps teams finish in that time of year."