With the Steelers off to a tough 1-2 start, it’s clear that these players are holding this offense back from being successful.
While the victory over the Bills gave the team hope, subsequent defeats to the Raiders and Bengals have cast a shadow over a once hopeful Steelers season. It seems clear that when healthy, this defense can shut down opposing offenses.
As for the team’s own offense though, this group has massively underperformed through three weeks. You can circle these players as the primary reason for the Steelers’ offensive slouch, as they are clearly holding this team back.
Steelers Eric Ebron
No Steelers offensive player has gotten off to a worse start than Eric Ebron. While an effective receiver last season, he has failed to make any sort of a noticeable impact for the offense so far. He can’t block, but frankly, given his playstyle, that was never really expected of him. The issue is, he has been extremely ineffective as a receiver, only catching one of his seven targets for 19 yards. Frankly put, he isn’t contributing positively to this offense.
Where he is really holding this team back though is that he is receiving snaps over Pat Freiermuth. For the first time this season, Ebron out-snapped the rookie. On paper, it makes sense given the Steelers were down for the majority of the game against the Bengals, but in terms of actual play quality, it was the wrong choice. Sure, Ebron can be a dynamic receiver, but he hasn’t shown that off this season. Meanwhile, Freiermuth has been one of the steadiest pass catchers on the team.
Moving forward, the Steelers can still use Ebron, but it needs to be more in a reserved role. There is little reason he should be seeing snaps over Freiermuth at this point, but if the team wants a two-tight end set out, Ebron can pose a mismatch against heavier defensive looks. Besides that, though, any snap he is receiving over Freiermuth is not helping this offense.