Pittsburgh Steelers fans have had plenty to gripe about with their offenses in recent years, but a recent stat really puts things into perspective of just how awful things have been.
The Steelers have not scored on an opening drive since Week 16 of the 2024 season. That’s bad. Last year, Steeler opponents scored more on Pittsburgh’s own opening drives. That’s awful.
NFL analyst Warren Sharp shared the stat on X recently, pointing out that the Steelers surrendered more points on their opening possessions thanks to a single pick-six. That pick-six was in Week 13 against the Cincinnati Bengals, when Cam Taylor-Britt intercepted a Russell Wilson pass intended for George Pickens, which he returned for a 51-yard touchdown.
Opening drives have been a disaster for the Pittsburgh Steelers, but Aaron Rodgers might be the solution
Slow starts have been the norm in Pittsburgh for years under Mike Tomlin. Six seasons ago, in 2019, the Steelers went without an opening drive touchdown. On just 10 occasions over the past five seasons have the Steelers ended their first possession with a touchdown.
Thankfully, Chris Boswell made up for it a bit in 2024, hitting four field goals on opening drives. While the Steelers have found a way to pull out winning seasons and playoff berths despite these slow starts, it’s become a trend that fans are more than sick of.
Hopefully, that will change in 2025 with Aaron Rodgers at quarterback. Unsurprisingly, Rodgers has a much stronger history of starting fast, leading more than his fair share of opening drive touchdowns across his storied 20-year career.
While opening-drive stats aren’t something Pro Football Reference narrows in on, his first-quarter stats should be promising enough. In his career, he’s completed 67% of his first-quarter passes with 117 touchdowns. Last season with the Jets, he only completed 60% of his first-quarter passes, but he did grab 36 first downs and scored seven times in the first quarter. Comparatively, Wilson completed 61% of his first-quarter passes, but only had 19 first downs and just two scores.
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To even try to be forgiving of the first possession woes in Pittsburgh by expanding to the entire first quarter still paints a pathetic picture for the Steelers. Last season’s horrendous finish saw the Steelers be outscored 40-3 in their five-game losing streak to end the season. Take it to the playoffs, the team has been outscored 66-0 in the first quarter in its past five playoff games.
Rodgers can’t be the team’s savior in every regard, but helping the team get off to better starts is step one to making this one-year experiment with him orchestrating the offense work in the slightest.