Mike's Beer Bar War Room: Offense must learn from the league's best

After an exciting Championship Sunday, the Super Bowl is set. San Francisco returns after a three-year layoff to face the Chiefs, the reigning Super Bowl champions. Kansas City has reached the Super Bowl in three of the past four seasons, including their victory over the 49ers in Super Bowl LIV. 

The Ravens and Lions were both eliminated, of course, and it could be argued that self-inflicted wounds are what sent Baltimore and Detroit home. Never forget that as many games in the NFL are lost as are won. And this gets magnified in the post season. Nonetheless, no matter what, reaching the Championship round in the NFL is incredibly difficult to accomplish, and the Ravens' and Lions' seasons should still be viewed as great successes, although their fan bases might disagree just a few days after elimination. 

There are a lot of ways to win in the NFL, and having Patrick Mahomes sure is a great place to start. But Mahomes won’t be in a Steelers' uniform anytime soon. So, what are some lessons the Steelers can take away from these final four teams to help their team building going forward?

One thing that massively stands out with the Lions, 49ers, Ravens and Chiefs is their tight ends. Mark Andrews missed significant time but did return to action on Sunday. Baltimore was fortunate enough to have a young star-in-the-making backing up Andrews in Isaiah Likely, who caught six touchdown passes over his most recent seven games, mostly with Andrews sidelined. 

Outside of Baltimore, the Lions have Sam LaPorta, who -- if it wasn’t for C.J. Stroud and Puka Nacua having historically great rookie seasons -- would have been an extremely strong candidate for Offensive Rookie of the Year. LaPorta and Amon Ra St. Brown are the focal points of the Lions' exceptional passing game. 

Kansas City has a guy named Travis Kelce, possibly the best tight end of all time. Kelce has now caught more passes in the postseason of any receiver in NFL history and ripped up a Ravens defense that is as talented in the middle of the field as any in the league. Kelce caught 11 passes for 116 yards and a touchdown in Baltimore, and has 23 receptions for 262 receiving yards and three touchdowns so far this postseason. Kelce is, without question, the foundation of Kansas City’s passing game, something that has unquestionably been true since Tyreek Hill was dealt to the Dolphins. 

George Kittle has much more around him in San Francisco, but if it wasn’t for Kelce’s brilliance, Kittle would probably be considered the best tight end in the league since Rob Gronkowski.

No one is implying that the Steelers can replicate what Kelce brings to the table. But on this play, Kansas City does a great job via scheme isolating their Hall of Fame pass catcher in a one-on-one situation, and Mahomes puts the ball where only Kelce can get it. This drive and touchdown set the tone for the entire game. 

Fantasy football doesn’t always translate to the real world. But in any league you might play in next season, LaPorta, Kelce, Andrews and Kittle very well could be the first four tight ends drafted. They are massive difference makers and create advantageous matchups for their offenses time and time again. These four all finished the regular season in the top seven amongst tight ends in receiving yards per game, as well as in receiving touchdowns. LaPorta, Kelce, Andrews and Kittle all finished amongst the top seven amongst tight ends in team target share. Amongst all tight ends that were targeted at least 50 times, Kittle was first in yards per route run, Kelce was third, Andrews was fourth and LaPorta was sixth. 

You probably don’t need much more evidence that these four tight ends are great players and difference makers in helping their team advance to the final four. But, how does this affect the Steelers? A week ago, this column suggested that the Steelers extend Pat Freiermuth’s contract this offseason after what was a down year from him. This isn’t to suggest that Freiermuth can get to the same level as LaPorta, Kelce, Andrews and Kittle, but few could think that he wasn’t vastly underused in 2023. 

When interviewing offensive coordinators, something that must be stressed is getting Freiermuth more involved in the Steelers' passing game and being schemed up far more effectively than what we saw in 2023. And hey, maybe even get Darnell Washington more than the 10 targets he received in his rookie season. Learn from the best teams in the league and get your tight end more involved. 

This is a simple route concept, but a very effective way to get Freiermuth the football and move the chains. George Pickens demands attention and pushes the defense downfield. Freiermuth quickly breaks off his route and Kenny Pickett delivers the ball on time for an easy gain. The Steelers need more of this. 

The other thing to investigate from these four offenses, which directly correlates to the usage of tight ends and bigger skill position players, is how the 49ers, Lions, Ravens and Chiefs utilized their offensive personnel. While they got away from it slightly after Matt Canada was relieved of his duties, the Steelers used 11 personnel (one running back, one tight end) on 73.1% of their snaps. Only five offenses used any personnel grouping more than the Steelers used 11 personnel. League average usage is 62.5%. 

In just 11 personnel, the Steelers finished the season 25th in EPA (Expected Points Added). The Steelers only used 13 personnel (one running back, three tight ends) on 4.2% of their snaps-mostly late in the season, but they were first in EPA amongst all NFL offenses when using this personnel grouping. The Steelers used 12 personnel (one running back, two tight ends) on 17.4% of their snaps and finished the season 24th in EPA. The Steelers didn’t use any other personnel grouping for more than 13 plays during the 2023 season. 

The 13 personnel success could be an outlier and it is a very small sample size. Maybe it just took the opponent by surprise, as the Steelers have been such a heavy 11 personnel team under Canada, and other than their usage of 12 over the past few seasons, rarely varied from those two groupings. Still, exploring a more diverse usage of personnel groupings is something the Steelers absolutely must consider. 

But, what are the most successful teams in the league doing along these lines? Let’s start with the rival Ravens, who were 28th in the usage of 11 personnel and 27th in the usage of 12 personnel. Because they have Patrick Richard, Baltimore is at the top of the NFL in all two-back personnel groupings, which presents an awful lot of different groupings for opposing defenses to prepare for. Baltimore’s offense finished 12th in EPA out of 11 personnel, but in the top five of their other four most used groupings, all of which have a fullback or second tight end on the field. The Ravens thrived with big personnel. 

How about the Chiefs? Andy Reid’s offense was 21st in their usage of 11 personnel, but fourth in their usage of 12 personnel and fifth in their usage of 13 personnel. Since trading Hill, Kansas City has become far less reliant on three-receiver sets and have utilized multiple tight ends on the field a great deal. By that team’s standards, this was a poor year -- and I use that term loosely -- for the Chiefs' offense in the regular season, but they still ranked seventh out of 12 personnel and ranked 12th out of 13 personnel compared to 14th in the league out of 11 personnel. Few will argue that Reid is an offensive mastermind, and the Chiefs are using extra tight ends at a very high rate. Also, Kansas City’s offense -- especially Kelce -- are playing better in the playoffs than they have all year. 

The Lions and Steelers were the only franchises that had two running backs rack up 1,000 yards from scrimmage in 2023. But unlike the Steelers, Detroit was in the middle of the league in terms of their usage of both backs being on the field together. The Lions have a very innovative and creative offense, and their coordinator Ben Johnson is coveted for head coaching positions. Their personnel tendencies are not particularly strong, but therein lies the beauty. Detroit was 20th in their usage of 11 personnel, 12th in their usage of 12 personnel, 10th in their usage of 13 personnel and 14th in their usage of 21 personnel (two running backs, one tight end). They threw everything at their opponents and did it all very well, not finishing below 11th in EPA in any of those groupings with a great ability to change week to week based on what the opposing defense did well and struggled to defend.

Lastly, San Francisco’s offense is a nightmare to play against, as the Steelers witnessed firsthand way back in Week 1. The 49ers ranked 31st in their usage of 11 personnel and just 25th in their usage of 12 personnel, by far the two most common personnel groupings amongst NFL offenses. Therefore, San Francisco is second in their usage of 21 personnel as well as 22 personnel (two running backs, two tight ends). In terms of EPA, the 49ers finished first or second in the league in all of these groupings with the exception of 21 personnel, in which they ranked ninth.

Lastly, the Steelers finished 12th in their usage of pre-snap motion of any kind and all the way down at 31st in usage of play-action, which is just mind boggling when considering how this offense is built. In these categories, the Chiefs ranked eighth and 29th, respectively, and the Ravens were also 12th in presnap motion but ranked sixth in play-action. The Lions ranked fourth in their usage of motion and 13th play-action while San Francisco ranked second and 20th, respectively.

It would take more dissection to figure out why Kansas City was so low in their usage of play-action, as they are often near the top of the league under Reid. But it is fair to say, overall, using motion and especially much more play-action should be something the Steelers should stress going forward. 

Here is one of the few examples of play-action for the Steelers this year. Even out of the shotgun, the ball fake impacts Seattle’s second level defenders a great deal. Perfectly on time, Mason Rudolph quickly pulls the ball and throws a strike to Diontae Johnson, who fails to pull it in, but the benefits of using play-action is clear, nonetheless. 

These four teams have had great success this year for more reasons that just discussed here. Great quarterback play, outstanding coaches and defenses clearly have factored in to a massive degree. But, at a point in time when the Steelers are in the beginning stages of changing their offense, they should look to the Lions, 49ers, Ravens and Chiefs for ideas. It would be crazy not to.