- Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Aaron Rodgers comes off the field against the Cleveland Browns on Oct. 13, 2025. — Ed Thompson / Steelers Now
PITTSBURGH — The Pittsburgh Steelers were never really in danger of losing Sunday’s AFC North opener against the Cleveland Browns.
The Steelers scored on their first possession, after which they never trailed, and the game was never again tied. The Browns did absolutely nothing on offense, crossing midfield just once in the first half and failing to break into the Pittsburgh red zone until there were 11 minutes left in the game.
The Pittsburgh offense just needed to lean on Cleveland a little bit, and they did that, getting some big plays on passes from Aaron Rodgers to Darnell Washington, DK Metcalf and Connor Heyward, while Jaylen Warren averaged 4.7 yards per carry on the ground against the league’s second-best run defense.
The Steelers gained 335 yards as a team, with Rodgers accounting for 235 through the air and the ground game producing 100 in totality.
It was not an offensive performance that legends will be made about. It was more than enough to beat the Browns, who in addition to possessing little offensive talent, also approached the game with a mind-numbing defensive strategy.
It’s fine to beat a bad team, and Cleveland certainly is that, without needing to do anything riskier than what the Steelers did on Sunday. While the Browns aren’t good, Myles Garrett can take over a game, and worse, is a threat to end the season of every quarterback he faces on every snap. The Steelers did well to keep Rodgers’ uniform clean while still finding ways to work the ball down the field at times.
- Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver DK Metcalf is covered by Cleveland Browns cornerback Tyson Campbell on Oct. 12, 2025. — Ed Thompson / Steelers Now
But they scored nine points in the first half. In a league where playoff games are so frequently decided by teams trading touchdowns with star quarterbacks, nine points in a first half isn’t going to get it done. The Steelers have given up 21 points in the first half of their last three playoff games, against Lamar Jackson and the Ravens, Josh Allen and the Bills and Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs.
Even if the AFC North looks like it’s the Steelers’ to lose, those are still the final bosses that await in the AFC if Mike Tomlin wants to end his playoff losing streak, and it’s going to take more dynamic offense than we’ve seen from these Steelers so far to make that happen.
That being said, growth from where Pittsburgh stands (14th in scoring, 29th in yards) will likely be difficult to come by, considering the personnel. Offensive coordinator Arthur Smith has done a very nice job of finding a way to scheme a team with one legitimate threat at wide receiver into two straight victories.
The Steelers have leaned on their jumbo offensive personnel package with extra offensive lineman Spencer Anderson and 300-pound tight end Darnell Washington paired together to create what is essentially a seven-man front these last two weeks. They mostly ran out of that alignment to beat the Minnesota Vikings in Week 4. Sunday against the Browns, they came out throwing out of it, catching Cleveland off guard for a big play to Washington.
I’m not saying it’s impossible for Smith to be able to continue to come up with wrinkles to make an offense like this work, but that is a very tall task. There’s a good reason nobody has regularly run such an offensive scheme like it with much success since World War II.
- Pittsburgh Steelers tight end Darnell Washington runs with the ball on Oct. 12, 2025. — Ed Thompson / Steelers Now
The Steelers haven’t gotten great pass protection in front of Rodgers, and though they shut down Garrett and company on Sunday, they did by giving tackles Troy Fautanu and Broderick Jones a ton of help from that pair of 300-pound extras.
Rodgers had the second-shortest time to throw in the entire league entering play in Week 6, and he probably didn’t extend it much on Sunday. There’s only so much you can do in terms of offensive concepts, when the ball has to be released that quickly.
The Steelers also don’t have much in terms of down-field receiving weapons. With Calvin Austin III injured, Rodgers targeted Metcalf nine times. No other wide receiver was targeted more than once.
Pittsburgh has invested a lot in its young offensive line. It’s reasonable to expect that the quartet of 24- and 25-year-olds across the front will continue to get better and grow together as the season goes on. There’s not much that can be done other than hoping and waiting.
But in terms of offensive playmakers, the Steelers have been woefully deficient for a season and a half. General manager Omar Khan came up with a stop gap at the trade deadline in 2024, adding Mike Williams. A great fit on paper, he finished the season with just nine receptions.
With the AFC North wide open, the Steelers absolutely need to find a way to bring in another wide receiver that can stretch the field alongside Metcalf and Austin. Any hope of that player Roman Wilson becoming that player this season should likely be written off by Scotty Miller out-snapping him, 26-15.
Not only that, there need to be some conversations about why Williams wasn’t able to be better integrated into the offense when he arrived mid-season last year and how to prevent that from happening again.
The division is wide open, and the 4-1 start is extremely promising, but the kind of offense we saw on Sunday will only take the Steelers so far.
