Randy Fichtner's first year as offensive coordinator increased the efficiency of the Steelers' offense, even without Le'Veon Bell ever reporting to the team. His relationship with Ben Roethlisberger helped the quarterback spread the ball around to his teammates more than in recent seasons and lead the NFL in passing yardage.
But there's still plenty of room for improvement in the offense as Roethlisberger also led the NFL in interceptions. We examine how the Steelers' offense can continue to improve, as well as provide our final grades of the season for the quarterbacks — Roethlisberger and Dobbs:
The Steelers ranked sixth in points scored in 2018, their second highest rank since 1996. They also were the No. 1 red-zone scoring offense in the NFL. The closest the Steelers had ever gotten to being the top-ranked red zone offense with Roethlisberger was No. 4 in 2005.
Part of that was because Roethlisberger was less predictable with who he targeted in 2018, and of course that means being less predictable about when he targeted Antonio Brown. That might seem misleading when you notice that Brown's 168 targets were the most in his past three seasons. But in 2018, JuJu Smith-Schuster's 166 targets were the closest any receiver had come to Brown since he took over the No. 1 receiver job from Mike Wallace in 2013.
While Brown has a history of saving the Steelers in their biggest moments, its dependency on him to pull those off allowed defenses to scheme against his routes. When the Steelers were down by 9 to the Ravens late in the fourth quarter this season, Brown ran a deep in-route while being trailed by a cornerback, with safety Eric Weddle overtop and two defenders in zone coverage underneath.
Still, Roethlisberger tried to stare off the coverage and fire a pass that was intercepted by Anthony Levine:
In 2018, 10 of Roethlisberger's league-leading 16 interceptions came on passes targeted at Brown. This helps explain the red-zone troubles in recent years. The Steelers had not been a proficient red zone offense because defenses could focus on stopping the run while keying coverage to at least slow down Brown.
Fichtner helped Roethlisberger take the easier targets by processing defenses rather than sticking to his pre-snap decisions. There are times when the latter is needed, but also times when easier options in underneath routes can produce big results.
Take Roethlisberger's touchdown pass to James Conner against the Ravens. While four different receiving targets all run crossing routes over the middle of the field, the Ravens do a good job of not allowing any of them to run free. But amid their routes, Conner breaks late to the flat and is wide open, making for an easy check-down:
Capitalizing on the weaknesses in defenses needs a mix of orchestrated route combinations and talented players to draw the defense's attention. Because the Steelers had Brown and Smith-Schuster, teams knew both would be primary threats. But if a defense focused all their help to those two, that always leaves three other receiving options who have a chance to beat single coverage.
The addition of Vance McDonald brought another player who could do just that. Watch how the Patriots have two safeties in off coverage, but both lined up on the right side of the field, focusing on Smith-Schuster and Brown. Roethlisberger recognizes this immediately and lets McDonald go to work against Patrick Chung to get open for the touchdown:
Fichtner helped Roethlisberger spread the ball more, but will have to continue to do so in 2019. If Brown is gone, Smith-Schuster will need to have more weapons beside him take away coverage. Conner and McDonald have proven to be reliable targets, but there will have to be additions to the offense besides James Washington and Ryan Switzer.
Another way of spreading the ball around is through a commitment to the ground game. While Conner had a good 2018, he still fumbled four times and was injured for multiple key games late in the season. Conner's power running style is suitable to what the Steelers' offensive line can do, but he doesn't have the explosive home run speed that forces defensive coordinators to honor his threat to score when he lines up as receiver.
Conner improved his route running and general receiving skills, but he's still not the threat needed. The Steelers can find plenty of talent like that in the draft, such as Memphis running back Darrell Henderson or Oklahoma State's Justice Hill, both of whom should be available as a middle-round pick in the draft.
While the Steelers need to consider finding another receiver if Brown is truly gone, finding an explosive running back to work in tandem with Conner is needed, as well.
Either way, Roethlisberger is more decisive with the ball than he has been at any stage in his career, but he's still a gunslinger that believes in his arm and his teammates when it comes down to the big moments. Fichtner's biggest challenge in 2019 will be helping Roethlisberger to not be overconfident and force tough passes when they aren't needed.
But if no real threats are added to the offense, look for more teams to key in on Roethlisberger's top options and tougher times for the offense against prepared defenses.
Final Grades
Here’s how these will work: We will grade each unit on the team and display how the players did through each quarter of the season, with each quarter represented by four games. Our War Room series has graded players on our stars and skulls system, so it’s time to add them all up and show their final marks.
Each game was graded on this scale:
Had a big play or a decent game 
Very impressive, multiple big plays
Elite performance
Gave up a big play without redemption 
Total performance was a disappointment
Horrible, inexcusable
If a player was average or unremarkable, they received no mark for that game. We have tallied all their performances to see who was the top of the class.
Valedictorian: Ben Roethlisberger
First Quarter: 6 44 Games
Second Quarter: 90 4 Games
Third Quarter: 42 4 Games
Fourth Quarter: 71 4 Games
Final Marks: 267 B+
Best Game: Week 10 vs. Panthers
Worst Game:Week 1 at Browns
Roethlisberger's worst moments came when he fell into designed traps by defenses.
Take his last interception of the season when Cincinnati's Shaun Williams returned a pass over the middle of the field for a touchdown. Roethlisberger's target was his top receiver, Smith-Schuster, because Brown was not dressed. When Smith-Schuster lined up over the slot, the Bengals concentrated their coverage to the middle of the field with a Cover 1 Robber scheme.
Cover 1 means there's one safety playing the deep middle of the field, while the "robber" is a defender that lines up to show man coverage but slips into a zone over the middle with his eyes on the quarterback. Williams was the robber and he never bit from Roethlisberger's first look-off away from Smith-Schuster:
Roethlisberger has been much better at looking off his true pre-snap read, but that distraction is only as valuable as the player he is pretending to target in the first place.
Take this successful example of Roethlisberger looking off Smith-Schuster on a similar seam route from the slot up the middle of the field. The Falcons showed a similar alignment to the previously shown Bengals' interception with a single high safety and press coverage across the field. They employed a Cover 3 zone scheme, but notice how the middle safety is pulled to the right side of the field by Roethlisberger staring at Brown.
There, Roethlisberger's look-off pays big in that it opens up Smith-Schuster's seam route for a bigger passing window:
Not all of Roethlisberger's 16 interceptions were his fault as some bounced off the hands of players like Jesse James, but the Steelers have to acknowledge the reality of Roethlisberger's limitations.
His greatness as a quarterback likens Roethlisberger to the player he idolized in his youth, John Elway. Elway's abilities made him a legend because of his gunslinger style and grit to pull out miracle finishes, but he also threw crucial interceptions that hurt his Super Bowl campaigns.
It wasn't until Terrell Davis joined the Broncos that Elway was able to put his team over the top and win back-to-back Super Bowls. It wasn't just Davis' production but the attention he commanded from defenses that opened more opportunities for Rod Smith, Ed McCaffrey and of course, Shannon Sharpe.
Roethlisberger faces a similar situation — his final years are upon him and there is talent on the roster. But with Bell gone and Brown probably on his way out, the Steelers need new talent to complement the roster, giving Roethlisberger the tools he needs and the opportunity to extend his legacy.
Some may state the fact that the Steelers never won a Super Bowl with Brown or Bell and that Roethlisberger won two prior to their arrival. While that's true, that statement ignores the fact that the Steelers had a mediocre passing attack then and ranked 20th in points scored in 2008.
It also ignores the fact that in the only playoff loss in which Brown and Bell both played — the Jaguars in January 2018 — the Steelers scored 42 points against the NFL's best defense and lost because the defense was broken in Ryan Shazier's absence. That is to say, neither Bell nor Brown were the reason for the team's failures to make the Super Bowl.
Barring the multiple miracles needed in drafting rookies and signing free agents to turn the Steelers into a defense even close to the elite defenses of the late 2000's, the Steelers have to bet on their offense leading the way in Roethlisberger's final years, if they hope to win a Super Bowl.
Doing so without adding to its talent pool to give Roethlisberger the balanced attack he needs, would be foolish.
Josh Dobbs
First Quarter: 0 0 0 Games
Second Quarter: 10 3 Games
Third Quarter: 00 1 Game
Fourth Quarter: 01 1 Game
Final Marks: 11 C
Best Game: Week 9 at Ravens
Worst Game: Week 14 at Raiders
Josh Dobbs got his first real NFL action and looked strong in his first pass, a 22-yard completion against the Ravens that dug the Steelers out of a big hole, backed-up against their own end zone. While that was gritty, he backed that up with a bad performance against the Raiders that hurt the team in their worst loss of the season.
Dobbs possesses the toughness to play quarterback and the arm strength, but he showed the lack of consistency in accuracy and confidence in his reads in the few plays he had. Ultimately, he's what would be expected of a backup quarterback as a fourth-round pick in his second pro season: Average.
Quarterbacks Final Grade: B
First Quarter Average: C+
Second Quarter Average: A
Third Quarter Average: B-
Fourth Quarter Average: B
Roethlisberger is still the engine that makes the Steelers' offense go. But an engine can't win a race without the right wheels, axle, and the sum of the parts that make a vehicle go.
The Steelers have to know that he will likely play at the same level as he has for years. That means fitting the offense with those parts that best support Roethlisberger, and Fichtner continuing to guide him into making the right choices to make the offense as efficient as possible.
