The Steelers need certain players on offense to contribute immediately
In 2019, the Steelers offense ranked 30th in total yards per game and 31st in passing, according to the official website of the NFL. Those two statistics alone reveal a lot about the reasons behind making the moves the Steelers made to attempt to shore up the offense.
While some moves were made in free agency and some of our own pending free agents were re-signed, the one player whom the Steelers need to have an immediate impact is Chase Claypool. If he can do anything at all to help revive the anemic passing game, the 2020 Steelers offense will be 100% better than it was in 2019.
Admittedly, I don’t anticipate that Claypool will win a starting job right out the gate, but I do see him playing in certain packages. As I stated in previous articles, even if he is not the refined route runner that we would like him to be, I’m pretty sure he can run a ‘go’, ‘fly’, ‘9’, or whatever you want to call a vertical route.
Claypool’s 4.4-second 40 speed will stretch the field and enable either other receivers and/or the tight ends to get open. A wide receiver with pure speed is what the Steelers offense was lacking in 2019. That is no longer the case. We now have a ‘burner’.
Let’s continue to look at the new additions on offense.