Steelers OC Makes Offensive Identity Clear After Adding Aaron Rodgers, DK Metcalf

The 2025 Pittsburgh Steelers offense will look very different from the 2024 Steelers attack.

After yet another season with an above-average record and wild-card round playoff loss, Mike Tomlin and the Pittsburgh front office looked to transform the offense. For better or worse, mission accomplished. The team traded for Seattle Seahawks burner DK Metcalf in early March, adding a top-flight deep threat, before trading fellow wide receiver George Pickens to the Dallas Cowboys weeks later. It let running back Najee Harris walk in free agency, with the veteran back signing with the Los Angeles Chargers, likely elevating Jaylen Warren into the true RB1 role, while rookie Kaleb Johnson joins the team from Iowa.

And, of course, after weeks of speculation, the team signed Aaron Rodgers at quarterback.

After being one of the most run-heavy offenses in the NFL a year ago (48% for the fifth-highest mark in the league, per the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette), offensive coordinator Arthur Smith indicated that he plans to have the new-look offense air it out much more this season.

“Obviously, we didn’t bring Aaron in here and sign DK for all that money to go run the wishbone,” Smith said last week, per the Post-Gazette. “You try to play to the strengths of your team.

“Every year will be different. You evolve with who you have personnel-wise, and strategically there are things you want to evolve to. A lot of times that’s how rosters are made — offseason acquisitions, free agency, the draft. I’ve had a lot of different quarterbacks with a lot of different skill sets. Your job as a coach is to play to the strengths of your players. You adapt to the personnel you have.”

The personnel this year is much different from where the franchise began 2024. With the mobile Justin Fields under center to start the season, it made sense to feature a heavy run game. That evolved with Russell Wilson, less mobile than he was earlier in his career, taking over a few weeks into the season, and ultimately stalling out after a promising start.

Now the Steelers have one of the great deep ball throwers in NFL history and one of the NFL's fastest and most physical downfield threats on the outside. Whether it works is an open question, but it is clear that the Rogers-led offense is going to be a much different animal than the Fields and Wilson-led offenses of '24.