Improved starting field position will go a long way to helping the Pittsburgh Steelers score more points in 2025. That’s the mentality special teams coordinator Danny Smith is taking. It’s a team goal but one that starts with his unit, chiefly a kick-return group that finished last in the NFL last season under the league’s new kickoff model.
“The biggest thing that we need to improve on, in my opinion, is field position,” Smith told reporters Tuesday via a team-issued transcript. “This is a game of field position. We need better field position. You know, all over the field. I take those as team issues. You want to play good defense, give good field position. It’s hard to drive a ball 90 yards against any defense, and we’re pretty good on defense.”
Per Pro Football Reference, Pittsburgh’s starting field position last season was one of the league’s better marks. The team’s average drive began on its own 31-yard line, seventh-best in the NFL. That considers all methods of starting drives: punts, turnovers, and kick returns. Forcing a league-high 33 takeaways certainly helped the cause.
To crack the top five, a stronger kick return will be needed. Not only did the Steelers finish last in kick-return average in 2024, they did so by a considerable margin. Pittsburgh’s average return went just 23 yards. The next-closest team was the Minnesota Vikings at 24.4, nearly 1.5 yards in front.
Big plays can favorably skew the numbers. Pittsburgh’s longest kick return went for just 35 yards, tying the Vikings for the NFL’s worst mark. The Steelers made an aggressive move to sign Cordarrelle Patterson literal hours after the league passed new kickoff rules that encouraged more returns. But the move fell flat. Patterson didn’t return a kick until November and averaged under 22 yards on his 11 tries. It was the worst figure of any returner with double-digit attempts.
Patterson remains on the roster but with a tenuous spot after the team signed Kenneth Gainwell, who can return kicks, and drafted Kaleb Johnson. If Patterson doesn’t make the team, Pittsburgh will need to find two new return men. Gainwell figures to be one option. The other is less clear. Perhaps WR Roman Wilson, Johnson, or someone else.
Tweaked kickoff rules should only encourage more returns. Touchbacks now are sent out to the 35-yard-line instead of the 30, likely daring teams to force the return instead of booting the football through the end zone.
“Field position, penalties and turnovers. If you’re going to be good in those three, you will be pretty good,” Smith said. “And that’s where I think that we can show improvement, and I expect us to.”
Smith doesn’t play a role in where the Steelers finish. That’ll be dictated by QB Aaron Rodgers and a new-look offense. But Smith factors into where Pittsburgh starts. And that start needs to put the offense in better position.
