3 New Year’s resolutions the Steelers must adhere to in 2022

Steelers resolution #3: Get better depth at key positions

The Steelers have been fairly successful in finding good depth throughout their roster in the past but this season has shown they neglected doing that in some key positions. There are depth issues at almost all positions but it seems to be the worst at running back, defensive line, edge, and offensive line.

The NFL season is a long grueling 5 months for everyone and even longer for playoff teams. This requires teams to have quality depth behind their starters to step in when there are injuries or to give starters a breather.

Najee Harris, for example, is a workhorse back and can take the bulk but they need better depth behind him to help carry the rest of it. Benny Snell is not the answer and Anthony McFarland has been a disappointment this season spending most of the year on IR or inactive on gamedays.

Depth makes every team better and it is not debatable. It allows to keep guys fresh longer and will allow the team to replace injured players without missing a beat. You cannot survive having mostly guys who would normally be on a practice squad out there getting a bulk of the snaps.

Better depth along the defensive line would likely have helped soften the blow of losing Tyson Alualu and the absence of Stephon Tuitt all season. This would have helped them avoid seeing their run defense catapult from being ranked number 11 in the league in 2020 to dead last this season.

These resolutions aren’t the end of the issues the team needs to fix but, they are a start. They do, however, need to do these three things first before finding their future at quarterback.

If the Steelers can make and adhere to these three resolutions for 2022, it will go a long way in making sure they start the rebuild off on the right foot. If they play it right and find a good QB once they have the right pieces around him, it could have them right back in the mix of things sooner than later.