A strength of this Pittsburgh Steelers offense heading into the season is going to be the run game. The front office has made several moves to improve the offensive line and support the talented tandem of running backs in Najee Harris and Jaylen Warren.
Head coach Mike Tomlin talks a lot about the offense getting chunk plays and when he was interviewed by the official team site, he clarified what that means in terms of the run game as opposed to just the passing game.
“Ten yards or more. That’s the global analytical definition from an NFL perspective. Runs of 10 yards or more are big runs in today’s game, and it’s kind of become a global thing in the analytics community, and I think we all kind of use that as a frame of reference.”
As Tomlin pointed out, across the league, the 10-yard rush is what is universally accepted as a chunk play in rushing. That number feels like a huge one for a Steelers run game that only averaged 4 yards per carry between its top two backs. If the Steelers want chunk plays on the ground it could be dependent on things like jet sweeps and quarterback runs by Kenny Pickett.
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