Pittsburgh Steelers 2023 Offseason Preview
Nick Mensio recaps the 2022 Steelers' skill players and looks ahead at Pittsburgh's notable free agents, potential cut and trade candidates, and team needs.
The Steelers stunned the Bengals with a Week 1 road win in overtime, but Pittsburgh would go on to lose its next four and six of its next seven, entering the bye at 2-6. A different team after the open date, the Steelers wrapped the second half of the season 8-2 to finish 9-8 and right in the thick of the playoff mix. Signed to be the Steelers’ bridge QB, Mitchell Trubisky lasted 3.5 games under center before being benched for first-round rookie Kenny Pickett. Trubisky had a 4:5 TD:INT mark in seven appearances, including five starts, and was 31st among all QBs in adjusted completion percentage. Pickett’s final numbers weren’t much better, producing a mere 7:9 TD:INT mark across 12 starts with just one 300-yard game and seven below 200 yards passing, but he did make some clutch throws late in games down the stretch. Pickett also showed his dual-threat ability with a 55/237/3 rushing line. Overall, he was dead last among all quarterbacks in touchdown rate (1.8%) and adjusted yards per attempt (5.5). A late first-round pick in fantasy drafts last summer, Najee Harris again started all 17 games but saw his touches decrease by four per game in his second year. He also averaged a pedestrian 3.8 YPC and saw 41 fewer targets than he did as a rookie. Not a big-play creator in any shape or form, Harris was 55th out of 62 qualified running backs in Pro Football Focus’ breakaway percentage and finished as fantasy’s RB18. His best ability for fantasy was his availability. Harris’ backup, undrafted rookie Jaylen Warren, was a spark plug at times, averaging 4.9 YPC on 77 carries, and came in at No. 9 among all RBs in PFF’s elusive rating. Harris just looks out of gas already after handling mammoth workloads at Alabama and as a rookie. Given $19 million guaranteed on a two-year extension last offseason, Diontae Johnson’s 147 targets were seventh-most in the NFL, but he turned them into a scoreless 86/882/0 line. Kalif Raymond was the next-closest scoreless wideout, who didn’t catch a touchdown on 64 targets. Johnson led the Steelers with 16 red-zone targets but caught just six of them. He and Pickett just never seemed to be on the same page, as Pickett had more of an eye for fellow rookie George Pickens. A playmaker out wide and in contested situations, Pickens went 52/801/4 on 84 targets. He’ll be a candidate for a second-year leap. After seemingly wearing out his welcome in Pittsburgh, third receiver Chase Claypool was shipped off to Chicago at the trade deadline for the first pick in the second round of this year’s draft. Second-year TE Pat Freiermuth caught just three more passes than he did as a rookie but produced 235 more yards on his 63 total grabs, though his touchdown total plummeted from 7 to 2 in year two. Freiermuth was eighth among all tight ends in yards per route run and top-10 in aDOT, finishing as fantasy’s TE11.