The Steelers' offense in 2019 was, well, downright offensive at times. And not in a good way.
The Steelers finished the season 3oth in the league in total offense, 31st in passing, 29th in rushing and 27th in scoring.
In other words, they were awful.
"We sucked. We sucked on offense," guard David DeCastro said. "We had a little streak there where we were doing just good enough, but we were pretty bad in the second half of the season."
No arguments there from anyone. But what was the problem?
Well, there were plenty.
Let's take a look at it by position and grade things out:
QUARTERBACKS
The Steelers got six quarters of sub-par play out of Ben Roethlisberger before he was shut down for the season because of an elbow injury that required surgery.
Mason Rudolph, a 2018 third-round draft pick, appeared in 10 games, eight of them starts, while Devlin Hodges, an undrafted rookie who didn't even make the roster coming out of training camp, appeared in eight games, starting six.
Both made their NFL debuts this season.
The results?
The Steelers went 0-2 in Roethlisberger's two starts -- though they led 10-7 in Week 2 against the Seahawks when he exited -- as he completed 56.5 percent of his passes with no touchdowns and one interception for a passer rating of 66.0.
Rudolph compiled a 5-3 record in his eight starts, and completed 62.2 percent of his passes with 13 touchdowns and nine interceptions with a passer rating of 82.0.
After a 3-0 beginning to his career, Hodges tailed off badly in his final three starts, losing all three as he completed 62.5 percent of his passes with five touchdown passes and eight interceptions for a rating of 71.4.
All told, the Steelers quarterbacks threw 18 touchdown passes, tied for 28th in the league, and 19 interceptions, the fifth-most in the league.
In other words, the entire thing just wasn't good.
There were some bright moments. As mentioned, Hodges won his first three starts, becoming the first undrafted rookie in a non-strike year to do so since the NFL merger in 1970. But he also threw just one touchdown against six interceptions, posting an abysmal passer rating of 39.6, in his final three starts as the league figured him out.
Rudolph played reasonably well after replacing Roethlisberger, throwing 11 touchdown passes against four interceptions in his first seven games. But a four-interception game in Cleveland, a game in which injuries to James Conner, JuJu Smith-Schuster and Diontae Johnson completely hamstrung the offense, and a stinker of a first half the following week in Cincinnati opened the door for Hodges to get into the lineup down the stretch.
Rudolph did get back into the lineup briefly in Week 16 against the Jets, playing well until suffering a serious injury to his left shoulder that ended his season.
That injury capped off a tumultuous season for Rudolph. He also suffered a concussion on a helmet-to-helmet hit by Ravens safety Earl Thomas in a Week 5 loss to the Ravens. Then he was bludgeoned over the head with his own helmet at the end of the loss to the Browns, then was accused by Cleveland defensive end Myles Garrett of making racial slurs a week later, a charge he vehemently denied and the NFL found to be baseless.
Some have contended he wasn't the same player after suffering the concussion against the Ravens, but the numbers don't bear that out. Rudolph led the Steelers to three wins after returning from the injury, throwing four touchdown passes and two interceptions.
The Steelers saw enough of the second-year quarterback to feel comfortable with him being their No. 2 QB in 2020, but so much depends on the health of Roethlisberger.
He signed a two-year contract extension last spring that will keep him in Pittsburgh through 2021 and the Steelers need him to return to form next season.
Still, the Steelers went 8-6 in games without their franchise quarterback this season, so while there were definitely some major failing moments, I can't give the group a failing grade in 2019, barely.
Grade: D
RUNNING BACKS
The Steelers felt this was a pretty good group going into 2019. James Conner was coming off a Pro Bowl season in his first year as a starter in 2018, while Jaylen Samuels had proven to be a valuable backup as a rookie. Fullback Roosevelt Nix also had been a Pro Bowl player in the past, and the team added rookie Bennie Snell in the fourth round to add depth.
But because of the quarterback situation, the Steelers' running backs faced a lot of loaded boxes. And injuries were a major issue. Conner appeared in just 10 games, playing only seven quarters in the second half of the season. Nix appeared just three games. Samuels missed two and Snell three.
The Steelers were forced to add Trey Edmunds and Tony Brooks-James off their own practice squad and Kerrith Whyte off the practice squad of the Bears to supplement their rushing attack.
Conner wound up leading the team in rushing for a second consecutive season, but with only 464 yards, the fewest for a Steelers' team leader since Don Shy paced the team with 341 yards in 1967.
That led to a rushing attack that averaged just 90.4 yards per game and topped 100 yards just five times. The Steelers also scored only seven rushing touchdowns. Only the Jets and and Jaguars scored fewer.
Snell had his moments in his rookie season, most coming in the second half when Conner gained just 84 yards on 19 carries over the final eight games.
He converted seven of his eight runs on third or fourth down and short, gaining 77 yards in those situations. He finished with 426 yards, with 308 of that coming over the final six games.
Samuels and Whyte both got limited carries, though Samuels did catch 47 passes to finish second on the team.
One of the areas where the backs struggled was in pass protection. Conner is the best at it, but with him missing most of the second half, it became more of an issue as Samuels, Snell and Whyte had issues knowing from where the pressure was coming.
As a group, the backs rushed for 1,287 yards. Four individual backs had more than that this season.
Grade: D
WIDE RECEIVERS
This will be a difficult grade. Given the state of the team's quarterbacking for large stretches, there wasn't a lot of volume.
After seeing 166 targets in 2018 and catching 111 passes with Roethlisberger at quarterback, Smith-Schuster's targets fell to 70 as he missed four games with a knee injury, as well.
Johnson, a rookie, led the team with 59 receptions, just two off Troy Edwards' team rookie-record of 61 set in 1999. James Washington overcame a slow start to catch 44 passes for a team-high 735 yards. Smith-Schuster, meanwhile, caught a career-low 42 passes for 552 yards, including 12 for 109 yards after Week 8.
Meanwhile, the team cycled through Donte Moncrief, Ryan Switzer and Johnny Holton at the position early in the season, with Moncrief being released, Switzer going on injured reserve and Holton never providing much more than very solid special teams play.
Second-year player Deon Cain flashed some talent after being signed off the Colts practice squad to replace Moncrief, finishing with five catches for 72 yards and drawing three pass interference penalties.
If looking just at the production of Smith-Schuster, this position would get an F. Not only was his production way down, a fumble he lost in overtime cost the team a potential win against the Ravens.
The same goes for what the team got out of Moncrief and Switzer. As a replacement for Darius Heyward-Bey, Holton could be considered a hit. He was much more impactful on special teams than Heyward-Bey had been.
But the seasons of Johnson and Washington have to be factored in.
Johnson took over the punt return duties from Switzer at midseason and led the NFL at 12.4 yards per attempt -- the first Steelers player to do so since 1961. That earned him second-team All-Pro status.
And Washington had 34 catches for 574 yards in the second half of the season, proving to be a big-play threat.
Grade: C
TIGHT ENDS
Vance McDonald was expected to have a breakout season to help replace the production of Antonio Brown. That never happened.
With the young quarterbacks playing, opposing teams flooded the middle of the field with defenders, making it difficult for the Steelers to not only run the ball, but get the ball to the tight ends consistently.
And even when the tight ends were open, the young quarterbacks didn't always pull the trigger.
It led to a season in which McDonald saw his production fall from 50 receptions on 72 targets -- both career highs -- in 2018, to 38 receptions on 55 targets. The percentage of catches per target remained at 69 percent, but his average per catch fell from 12.2 yards to 7.2, as McDonald became more of an outlet receiver than a downfield threat.
McDonald also missed two games because of injuries, issues that caused him to leave two games early, as well.
The Steelers had Jesse James to back up McDonald in previous seasons, but he left in free agency, signing a 4-year, $22.6-million contract with the Lions.
That left a void with this group. Nick Vannett was acquired via a trade after Xavier Grimble was lost for the season because of injury and produced 13 receptions for 128 yards in 13 games with the Steelers. He's a competent No. 2 tight end but he'll be an unrestricted free agent.
Zach Gentry, a fifth-round draft pick, saw limited action as a rookie. He saw action in four games, playing 49 snaps with one catch for four yards. This was largely a scholarship season for Gentry, who needs to improve his strength.
McDonald has an option in his contract for 2020 at $5.5 million and also has roster and workout bonuses totaling $900,000, so the Steelers will have to make a decision about whether he is worth the $7.1 million he will count against the salary cap next season.
As a whole, the tight end production fell from 86 receptions for 1,119 yards and six touchdowns in 2018 to 53 catches for 408 yards and three touchdowns. A big part of that can obviously be attributed to the quarterback play, but the group didn't pass the eye test in 2019, either, especially McDonald.
Grade: F
OFFENSIVE LINE
Per FootballOutsiders.com, the Steelers ranked 30th overall in run blocking, which belies the team's troubles running the ball. But a lot of that can be attributed to the constant turnover at running back and issues at quarterback. The Steelers were 15th in that metric in 2018 when Conner played in 13 games.
The same could be said of the team's pass blocking. The Steelers ranked 4th in pass blocking in 2018 according to Football Outsiders. That ranking fell to 12th this season.
There's no doubt the line wasn't as good as it was in 2018, but the extenuating circumstances make it difficult to judge.
Rudolph and Hodges didn't have the freedom or knowledge to audible at the line of scrimmage, leading to more bad plays than usual. They also didn't always provide proper protection calls, leading to blitz pickup issues.
DeCastro was his usual solid self at right guard and Matt Feiler was equal to what he was in 2018 at right tackle. But Maurkice Pouncey's play slipped a bit at center -- particularly in his shotgun snaps -- and the play of left tackle Alejandro Villanueva and, particularly, left guard Ramon Foster fell considerably.
The Steelers are expected to move on from Foster at left guard, but there's some expectation that Villanueva, who dealt with some minor, nagging injuries, will bounce back.
Backups B.J. Finney, Zach Banner and Chuks Okorafor all saw playing time, with Finney starting at both guard and center, Banner seeing time as an additional blocker and Okorfor making a spot start at right tackle.
Finney will be an unrestricted free agent, while Banner and Okorafor will both be restricted free agents, but the Steelers are expected to make a push to retain all three.
Some tried to attribute the falloff on the line to the loss of offensive line coach Mike Munchak, but that never appeared to be an issue. Age, in the case of Foster, and the inexperience at quarterback seemed to be much more impactful.
This group had been so good for so long, however, that the falloff from A efforts in previous seasons looked worse than it actually was.
Grade: C-
OVERALL
As DeCastro so succinctly said, the Steelers offense was bad, particularly in the second half of the season when the team scored 10 offensive touchdowns in the final nine games.
After scoring just three points in the opener, the Steelers averaged 326.3 yards and 21.2 points per game over their next 11 games. That's not great, but it wasn't the putrid 233 yards and 13.3 points the Steelers averaged over their final four games.
Offensive coordinator Randy Fichtner took a lot of heat during the season for the offensive struggles, but he coached his way through this season with a handful of fives and sixes at a table at which the other players were holding face cards.
Early in the year, he was dealing with a compromised Roethlisberger and then two quarterbacks who had never played in an NFL game working with inexperienced receivers. Later in the year, he didn't have his top two offensive skill players -- Conner and Smith-Schuster -- for large stretches. And when they did play, they weren't effective.
You can only bluff your way through the game so many times until the other players at the table figure it out.
Could Fichtner have been better? Sure. But sometimes the game deals you tough hands.
The Steelers knew there would be some adjustments early to playing without Brown, even if Roethlisberger had been healthy. But they didn't expect to lose their franchise quarterback six quarters into the season and then have to play large chunks of the second half without the two skill position players who had gone to the Pro Bowl in 2018.
Still, there are some things this team can build on moving forward. Johnson and Washington emerged in the second half and will form what should be a much better receiving group in 2020 with both Roethlisberger and Smith-Schuster healthy.
And the team learned that Conner is not a feature back that can be counted on to play anywhere close to 16 games.
If we had known going into 2019 that the trio of Roethlisberger, Conner and Smith-Schuster would miss a combined 24 games, an average of eight each, nobody would have projected an 8-8 record out of this season.
Rudolph also got enough experience -- 10 games total -- that he can now be considered a veteran backup at the position heading into his third season. The Steelers went 5-3 in his starts, with him throwing 13 touchdowns and nine interceptions in 10 games.
By comparison, Charlie Batch, the longtime Steelers quarterback many fans point to when they say the Steelers need to sign a veteran backup, was 6-3 in his career with the Steelers, throwing 12 touchdown passes and 12 interceptions.
That said, an offense that finished at or near the bottom in pretty much every metric can't get a passing grade. But it was good enough, coupled with a shutdown defense, to help this team win eight games.
Grade: D
