After forging an identity on the ground, there's no doubt the Steelers will be running the ball a lot this season. And while they established that identity with a productive rushing attack in the second half of the 2022 season, there's still plenty of room for improvement.
As a team, the Steelers averaged just 4.1 yards per rush in 2022. Only five offenses were worse. The biggest culprit for such a low number was their lack of explosive runs.
Despite just nine offenses averaging more rushing attempts per game than the Steelers (29.4 per game), they manufactured just 53 rushes of 10 yards or more and just eight runs of 20 yards or more. 15 teams have more of the 10-yard variety and only seven teams have fewer rushing attempts that resulted in 20 or more yards. Lastly, the Steelers' .4% of runs that gained 30-plus yards were only better than Washington, Miami and Tampa Bay.
Najee Harris will never be a guy that breaks off very long runs. That isn’t his style of play, nor his skillset. Jaylen Warren has more explosive traits but also isn’t a true home run hitter. We know Harris will get the bulk of the carries once again, but Warren is an excellent young complement.
A bowling ball runner with quick feet, good acceleration and vision, Warren is a much different type of ball carrier than Harris. With Harris doing much of the heavy lifting, Warren is in an ideal situation to really maximize his positive attributes:
This is a well-blocked zone run, giving Warren room to get downhill and the rookie runner adds extra yardage with a strong finish.
But, you know what? Harris and the Steelers running game, while it certainly lacks explosion, it also is quite consistent and there were very few negative runs in 2022. Harris also has appeared in all 34 possible games as a pro, despite a foot injury to start his second season. Harris has the most touches of any player in the league over the past two seasons. He is the very definition of a "workhorse back," and that in and of itself has a lot of value.
In terms of EPA (Expected Points Added), the Steelers' run game finished the season ranked third overall behind only the Eagles and Ravens. And from Week 9 on, they were also third overall. In terms of Success Rate, which is defined as gaining four yards or more on first down, gaining at least half of the “To Go Yardage” on second down and getting a first down on third down no matter the distance needed, the Steelers' ground game came in at fourth for the year and were third in the second half of the season.
But, what is crazy is that the Steelers did all this against very heavy defensive box counts. Get this: The Steelers' percentage of runs into a box count of eight or more defenders was the seventh most in the league last year. How did they do against such difficult circumstances?
The Steelers were the second-most successful team in the league against boxes with eight or more defenders. Just seven offenses had a higher percentage of their runs against seven-man boxes, and the Steelers were the seventh-most successful team in the league in doing so. As you would think, the Steelers therefore had a low percentage of their rushing attempts against a box count of six or fewer, but their success rate against such defensive alignments finished eighth best in the NFL last year.
Want more data proving how effective the Steelers were on the ground last year? If we focus on rushing attempts that gained just one yard or less, only three offenses were better than the Steelers, who gained at least one yard on a whopping 83.6% of their rushing attempts -- usually against stacked boxes as just mentioned.
This also occurred even though the Steelers were 22nd in yards gained before first contact per rushing attempt. As a team, the Steelers' ball carriers forced 99 missed tackles. Seven teams forced more missed tackles. These were hard, tough, physical yards.
Per NFL Next Gen Stats, of every running back with at least 150 carries, Harris finished tied with Kenneth Walker III with their largest efficiency score. Their definition -- taking the total distance a player traveled on rushing plays as a ball carrier according to Next Gen Stats (measured in yards) per rushing yards gained -- very much shows that Harris had to work extremely hard for every yard he gained. In fact, Harris had to travel 4.2 actual yards for every yard he gained on the field.
This is one of the few long runs of Harris’ career after the seas parted with great blocking:
While the blocking did much of the work and every running back in the NFL would have gained big yardage on this play, the way Harris punishes a smaller tackler on the third level of the defense really stands out. And while Harris was injured on the play, he returned to action. Keeping Harris off the field is a difficult endeavor.
The Steelers are predominantly a zone running team (only the Falcons had a smaller percentage of their runs out of man/gap concepts). And this running game had the ninth-best success rate on zone concept runs. They were 31st in success rate when calling runs out of man/gap concepts.
This is a perfectly blocked zone run. Notice how all the blockers move as one in unison:
In this case, Harris isn’t touched until he is very well past the line of scrimmage because the blocking was so good. And then Harris finishes the run in the end zone in dramatic fashion.
It is pretty clear what the Steelers' run game was in 2022. And it really worked well. But, it can get better.
No one will dispute that the Steelers' offensive line is better now than it was last year, even if it takes some time for Broderick Jones -- who is already a superb run blocker as offensive tackle prospects go -- takes some time to take over the starting left tackle job. The Eagles last year -- where Isaac Seumalo played, of course -- were one of the few offenses that had a better success rate on zone runs than the Steelers. Seumalo fits this scheme perfectly, and Jones could be great in this capacity before long.
Also, the Steelers now can employ more six-man offensive line groupings as well. Mixing in Darnell Washington, a massive human being who, like Jones, moved a lot of big-time SEC defenders backwards in the run game while at the University of Georgia. And, without a shred of doubt, the Steelers' offensive line has far greater depth now than it did last season.
How about running into heavy boxes? While they were very successful against stacked defensive fronts, running into a heavy box with a numbers disadvantage is a tough way to live. Did Kenny Pickett have the go ahead to check out of run plays when the numbers weren’t in the Steelers favor? Who is to say for sure, but he certainly should have that freedom going forward. And, as the Steelers' passing game hopefully develops as this extremely young group matures, it seems as though the obvious correlation would be defenses playing with fewer defenders near the line of scrimmage.
Explosive runs are great. In fact, they are tremendous. But, consistent and physical running is also fantastic, and it very much takes its toll on opposing defenses while allowing the Steelers' defense to watch much of the game from the sidelines.
Having such a run game travels well to other stadiums, is a fantastic security blanket for a young quarterback and gives the Steelers' offense a high floor. That’s an outstanding foundation.
