{"id":215328,"date":"2026-06-10T08:10:12","date_gmt":"2026-06-10T08:10:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/215328\/"},"modified":"2026-06-10T08:10:12","modified_gmt":"2026-06-10T08:10:12","slug":"three-stats-pittsburgh-should-want-to-repeat-in-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/215328\/","title":{"rendered":"Three Stats Pittsburgh Should Want To Repeat In 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

We\u2019ve spent plenty of time focusing on where the Pittsburgh Steelers need to improve. Offense,<\/a> defense,<\/a> and special teams<\/a> all have areas in need of improvement. Still, there are areas where the team must simply produce similar numbers.<\/p>\n

Here are three places where Pittsburgh can replicate last year\u2019s production and feel good about it.<\/p>\n

1. Offensive Line Penalties \u2013 13 (Fewest Leaguewide)<\/p>\n

A point we highlighted in February,<\/a> Pittsburgh\u2019s offensive line was cleaner than any other front five last year. Just 13 penalties the entire year, four fewer than any other collective group.<\/p>\n

Will there be regression to the mean? As the adage goes, refs can call holding on any play, and perhaps Pittsburgh got a little \u201clucky\u201d last season in that regard. The unit will also have to adjust to a new offensive line coach, even if James Campen doesn\u2019t plan on<\/a> making wholesale changes.<\/p>\n

The cleaner this offensive line can play, the better it is for the offense\u2019s overall output. Penalties can be such a drive killer, and Pittsburgh avoided them at a remarkable level last year.<\/p>\n

2. Offensive Short-Yardage Success \u2013 63 Percent (11th Leaguewide)<\/p>\n

There\u2019s still room for growth, but last year\u2019s short-yardage success (3rd\/4th down and 1-3 yards to go) was a massive leap over 2024. Two years ago, Pittsburgh finished 30th in the league after converting barely more than half (52.6 percent) of its chances.<\/p>\n

Breaking that down even further, the Steelers\u2019 short-yardage running game saw a big improvement. In 2024, the ground game converted just 59 percent of its chances. In 2025, that number spiked to over 72 percent.<\/p>\n

No question, that was a motivation for Pittsburgh breaking out the Tush Push and its many offshoots.<\/a> Will Mike McCarthy continue it in 2026? If so, with Connor Heyward off to Las Vegas, who will be the quarterback?<\/p>\n

Regardless of the plan, the Steelers must win in these critical third- and fourth-down moments. Cracking the top 10 would be great, but replicating this stat would also be acceptable.<\/p>\n

3. Defensive Takeaways \u2013 27 (Fourth Leaguewide)<\/p>\n

Despite its warts, the Pittsburgh Steelers\u2019 defense continued its impressive trend of taking the football away. Pittsburgh ranked in the top five in 2025 with 27 of them, highlighted by a six-takeaway day against the Indianapolis Colts and five against the New England Patriots. Since 2022, the Steelers and Eagles have been the only teams with three such defensive performances.<\/p>\n

They came in all forms. Strip-sack fumbles, sometimes for touchdowns. Tipping passes for interceptions. Recovering muffed punts.<\/p>\n

If Pittsburgh can improve other areas of its game and continue creating splash plays, the unit will be one of the NFL\u2019s best. Defensive coordinator Patrick Graham must continue a turnover culture<\/a> the defense has enjoyed for years while preventing the big plays that ailed the Steelers last season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"We\u2019ve spent plenty of time focusing on where the Pittsburgh Steelers need to improve. Offense, defense, and special…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":215329,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[73,75,74,1833,995],"class_list":["post-215328","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh-headlines","tag-pittsburgh-news","tag-pittsburgh-steelers","tag-trending"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/215328","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=215328"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/215328\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/215329"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=215328"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=215328"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=215328"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}