Kovacevic: Canada's identity for this offense can't be narrow (again)

I asked the little guy to pinpoint the Steelers' offensive identity for 2023, and he pointed to the big guy.

"That right there, that's the foundation of our offense," Calvin Austin III was telling me Tuesday after the third week of OTAs opened at the UPMC Rooney Sports Complex, where, two stalls to his left, stood Darnell Washington. "When you've got size like that on your side ... that's your security."

Security? Like a bouncer?

"I mean, look at him."

I did. Washington towers above most of humanity at 6 feet 7, 269 pounds. By comparison, Austin's about the size of one of Washington's legs at 5-9, 161. 

I asked the big guy, too, and he pointed back to the little guy:

"We've got speed," he'd reply, taking his turn to glance over toward Austin, then letting out a loud laugh. "No, we're gonna be versatile. Very versatile. You've got the speed. You've got players who are big and physical. You've got great ball skills in a guy like George. You've got ... hey, whatever you name, we've got it."

Believe it or not, that might not be summertime hype. At least not in the check-the-box sense.

I'll take George Pickens' hands, as Washington highlighted, as well as his size and speed. He's got it all. He might be the most gifted of them. I'll also fill in the square at quarterback with Kenny Pickett, at running back with Najee Harris, at offensive line with sudden stability from left to right, at wide receiver with a varied group that'll have Austin and Allen Robinson joining Pickens and Diontae Johnson and, yeah, at tight end with Washington now piled on top of Pat Freiermuth.

I'm not yet a buyer that any among them is some NFL mega-star yet, and I'm currently seeing only Pickens as carrying such potential. But all those holes that'd unraveled all else over the past two seasons ... at the very least, they're filled with people who are "starter-capable," to borrow a Mike Tomlin-ism. They can play, and they can play a good brand of football. I believe that now, for the first time in far too long, about all 11.

More important, I'd say, they are, as Austin prioritized, founded on a running game that averaged 146.4 yards per game over that finishing 7-2 run this past season, so the hole's already been dug and the cement poured.

"We're going to run," as the new left guard, Isaac Seumalo, was sharing with me on this day. "That's not a secret."

Nope. And neither is the depth, especially on the line with two 2022 starters possibly displaced, but also at running back where Jaylen Warren occasionally out-performed Najee Harris and just might share the marquee -- even the same backfield -- in the year to come.

Again, no need for hype or exaggeration. The upgrade in personnel couldn't be more objectively evident.

But ...

Yeah, sorry. No way I wasn't going to get there, and I'm candidly surprised it took me this long.

One can compile an orchestra of Yo-Yo Ma-level clones, from piano to strings to brass to percussion, and if the conductor's a wreck with the baton, it'll bomb. And it'll get the treatment it deserves, since Canada's less of a Yo-Yo Ma and more of a No-No More, in case anyone's forgotten the frightened shrieks across the Nation back in January when the team had to awkwardly announce in public that a coordinator who still had another year on his contract was, in fact, still employed.

I could revisit all the woeful stats that wrapped around that impressive finish for the ground game, but the bottom line now is the same one Canada would relentlessly recite himself week after week: That offense averaged 18.1 points per game, 26th in the 32-team NFL, and, as he'd repeat, "We need to score more points."

He's correct, of course, but here's where the mantra morphs. Because the "we" will surely be reduced to the singular after ... oh, I don't know, with the first appearance of the punting unit? With Pickett's first incompletion? With the first handoff for the first jet sweep resulting in the first 5-yard loss?

It doesn't have to be fair. It might not be fair. But it'll be on Canada to figure this out, more than anyone else in fold, up to and including Tomlin himself. (Though Tomlin obviously won't exactly shine, I'd further guess, in having contributed to whatever extent in keeping Canada.) The pieces are in place, and the excuses are gone. Millions of dollars and a ton of draft capital have been invested. This buck lands firmly on the desk inside the coordinator's office.

So, what'll come from there?

Well, this is where it just might get intriguing, for better or worse, in one direction or the other. And please, hear me out before snapping, since I've been anything but a Canada proponent in his terrible tenure here.

The players with whom I'm speaking, including on this day, are describing a more ambitious, more aggressive and infinitely more offense that Canada's installing for this season. Per the Steelers' practice guidelines, reporters are prohibited from relaying specifics from the sessions unless such information's confirmed by participants, but I'm plenty comfortable sharing here -- based on countless conversations -- that this offense will come with more schematics than ever. 

Players have confirmed all the screens I'm seeing, to mention one. And play-action. And jet sweeps that aren't advertised on billboards beforehand. And, maybe most striking, the constant variance of alignments and motions and even the prime personnel on a given play. For example, I didn't even list Connor Heyward in what's above, but he's in more mixes than ever. I'm not even sure what position the dude plays anymore.

Why now and not then?

Austin offered me what I thought was a terrific reasoning.

"There was so many of us who were so new last summer, and that goes for Kenny and Mitch, too," he began, referring there to Mitch Trubisky. "Everything was different. Everything. Even Kenny and Mitch, they were out there competing, not like they are now. They weren't learning from each other. They were competing while they're trying to get to know us and get to know the offense and ... everything was different."

He recalled a February flight he made to Florida to work with Pickett and other receivers.

"Night and day. Not close. People might not realize this, but you do need to learn your quarterback, and they need to learn you. Kenny throws a different ball than Mitch. Kenny handles different situations differently. And now, for the first time, we're all out there working together, getting on the same page. And we're all trying to do our part. We all know our roles."

He'd make that the theme of where he'd go next. And just as happens on the field with Austin, once he got rolling, I just let him roll.

"Myself, I was out there for a drill one day, and I had no idea what to do. I mean, I knew, but I was so amped up, so blown away by where I was that I'm just jittering. Finally, Coach T walks over and says, 'Hey, man, just play football. It's still football,' and that settled me down."

And this year?

"I'll say it again: Night and day."

He's pretty neat, huh?

Here's some of our time in video form:

I might as well let the kid write the rest, too.

"I wasn't able to play, but I was part of everything, watching everything," he'd proceed, referencing the foot injury that cost him all of 2022 and which he insists is fully healed. "And I think, toward the end of last year, we really started clicking on all cylinders. Not just the running game. To where guys kind of honed into their role on the team. That's when you saw the whole offense start flowing. And that's how football is, man: There's a bunch of guys in roles excelling, doing what each of us does best."

Brief pause.

"Roles. It's about roles. Let me find and define my role so then I can help the entire offense. And my role becomes that much easier if we're all doing different things."

And being less predictable?

"It's like a tree. The running game's the tree, and we've got some great branches. Just keep growing. It's like, 'We've got this, so now we can get the play action going, get some more jet sweeps going, get some more screens, get some more deep passes, some short passes because we trust that we can get everyone involved."

Fine, but now that I'd fallen in love with a football player for essentially penning half my column, I had to press: How healthy is that foot? As healthy as it happened to appear on the field on this day?

No, really, take a glimpse:

"I'm good," he'd reply. "I am. It's all the way healthy, but I'm not going at 100 percent out here, if that makes sense. There's no way to simulate a game in practice, and I'm not going to do that yet. But I'll be there. I'm ready to do whatever's asked of me, and I'm ready right now. You feel me?"

Feel him? I'm ready to push him for part-time coordinator duty.