Steelers Stock Up/Stock Down After Week 12

By Brien Hanley on November 27, 2023

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While the score didn’t show it, the Pittsburgh Steelers controlled their contest against the Cincinnati Bengals.

Pittsburgh was in a bit of turmoil after the disappointing offensive showing the previous week against the Browns. The offensive issues started to leak into the locker room and Mike Tomlin was starting to lose his grip, so he finally pulled the plug and fired offensive coordinator Matt Canada. While nobody likes to see guys lose their job, the shake up seemed to do the trick.

Let’s take a look at what’s trending up and what’s trending down after a week 12 victory.

Stock Up

Kenny Pickett

If Canada was the scapegoat for the offense’s poor performance, Pickett was his running mate. The low point coming last week versus the Browns in a pathetic performance where he threw for 106 yards.

He was a different quarterback versus the Bengals. The 2nd year signal caller was poised, accurate, and confident. All things that had been missing from his game all season long. No play displayed his accuracy and confidence more than this 4th quarter throw to George Pickens on 3rd and 5.

It was a welcome sight for Steelers fans as well as the organization. While it was one game, the  pressure on the former 1st round draft pick to perform after firing the offensive coordinator was immense. For this week, Pickett passed the test with flying colors.

Najee Harris

Over the 1st 10 weeks, Jaylen Warren had outperformed Harris. He was quicker to the hole, showed much better vision, and simply played harder than Harris had shown.

Much like Pickett, all this changed against the Bengals. Harris ran with vision, power, and didn’t tap dance when nothing was there. He put his head down and ran downhill without losing four yards trying to outrun guys to the outside.

There was an absolute plan in the play calling, which helped tremendously. But it seemed like a rejuvenated Harris, who was one yard shy of 100 on the day, stayed patient and allowed for things to develop versus trying to force the issue. All in all, Harris showed that he shouldn’t be forgotten and is still a very valuable asset in the Pittsburgh offense.

Stock Down

Diontae Johnson

To say his effort was a disappointment would be an understatement. You could say it started last week after the Cleveland game with his spat with Minkah Fitzpatrick. It supposedly didn’t have an effect on this week’s preparation. But it clearly had an effect on his effort in the game against the Bengals.

Allowing a sure fire touchdown pass to be dropped because he quit on the play is inexcusable. Yes it was a touchdown that should have been challenged. But Johnson gave up versus finishing the play which cost the Steelers points

His refusal to even try on the very next play is a complete lack of professionalism. I understand being frustrated, but to give up on your team because of what you did the play before should be met with heavy internal fines.

As the team’s best route runner, the Steelers can’t afford to have more “effort” games like this from Johnson.

Jaylen Warren

Warren has proven his worth to this football team during the first 10 weeks of the season. The way he fights and never quits on a play is in direct contrast to what we say from Johnson. But there are limits and a time to shut it down. Especially when it involves fumbling the football.

The fumble not only cost the Steelers points, it also killed momentum because Pickett and the offense was cooking at that point.

Warren is outstanding for what he brings to the table. He is a welcomed change of pace and an outstanding receiver. But he was looking to hit a home run on every run against Cincinnati when three yards would have been fine. That led to the fumble as well as plays with no gain. He just needs to get back to being himself and he will be fine.

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