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The Pittsburgh Steelers season ended earlier than anyone could have expected and despite an 11-0 start, the team crumbled down the stretch and might have missed out on their last, best chance for a Super Bowl for a long time. Here is our look back at each positional until in our own version of the exit interviews.
Next up, we have the running backs.
If you didn’t look closely, you might not have noticed the Steelers even had running backs in 2020. The team was dead last in the NFL in rushing yards with only 1,351 yards in the season. This works out to around 84 yards per game.
To be completely honest, if it weren’t for the first five games of the season when the Steelers actually ran the football with some conviction this number would be much worse.
Pittsburgh’s leading rusher was James Conner who finished the season with 731 rushing yards in 13 games (11 starts) and averaged 4.3 yards per carry. These aren’t terrible numbers on the surface but for a guy heading into free agency, it was a disappointment.
Speaking of disappointment, the combination of Benny Snell Jr., Jaylen Samuels and Anthony McFarland was the literal definition. Samuels in particular was underwhelming. The three combined for only 509 rushing yards.
But we can’t put all of this group’s failings on the backs. The Steelers offensive line was grossly underwhelming as a run-blocking unit and the coaching staff basically gave up on running the football for the last 11 games of the regular season.
After all the gloom and doom of 2020, is there any reason for optimism going into 2021? Definitely. Pittsburgh is going to end up with a new offensive coordinator, likely Matt Canada, which should bring a fresh new approach to moving the football.
The Steelers are also going to need to overhaul the offensive line in the offseason. Assuming this happens, the sledding shouldn’t be quite so hard on any running back.
Finally, we look for a changing of the guard at running back as well. Whether this means McFarland takes over in Canada’s offense or Pittsburgh brings in someone new, It’s most likely Conner moves on in free agency and the facelift to the run game is extreme.
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