Last year, the Steelers made it to the playoffs last year. And they still blew up the entire quarterback depth chart. This year, the offense — with new quarterbacks and perhaps more importantly a new offensive coordinator — is performing much better.
After Sunday’s 20-10 win over the Chargers, I asked receiver Calvin Austin III (whose tenure bridges the two seasons) to explain the difference offensively in 2024.
“I would say . . . it’s really no panic with anything in any situation,” Austin said. “Whether we start off slow or not . . . there’s been no panic and I feel just like that’s the biggest thing.”
He pointed to improved communication and the overriding sense of calm. Along the way, he said “no panic” three times.
“It used to be a lot of you know looking around and searching but I feel like now it’s no panic,” Austin said (make that four). “We got the answers. It’s just about we go over, and we look at the iPad, clean up what we got to clean up. We talk about what plans we like next and we go out and we execute. It’s simple, you know?”
It might be simple, but it wasn’t present in 2023. What’s the main source of it now?
“It’s everybody I would say, but definitely Coach [Arthur] Smith,” Austin said. “He always comes, in checks in with us after each drive, what we like, what we don’t like, what we’ve been seeing. The quarterbacks, Justin [Fields], Russ [Wilson], Kyle [Allen], they always do a good job of just communicating to us and talking to us, so that definitely goes a long way.”
There was reason to potentially panic against the Chargers. The Steelers entered the game with four receivers: George Pickens, Van Jefferson, Scotty Miller, and Austin. Jefferson made an early exit with an injury. That left the Steelers at three for the rest of the game. (They also had Cordarrelle Patterson, who is technically a running back, and who caught three passes for 15 yards on Sunday.)
Austin stepped up, with a career-high 95 receiving yards. The capper came on a perfectly-executed 55-yard catch and run for the touchdown that broke the Chargers and stretched a seven-point lead to 10.
The Steelers will try to keep it going this weekend, when they visit the 1-2 Colts.
