Former Steelers executive and former general manager of the Buffalo Bills Doug Whaley joins The Fan Morning Show every Wednesday from 9-10 am in-studio.
Whaley was impressed by the Steelers Week 1 win over the Bills. He called it a "statement game" saying that the Steelers showed that a lot of their potential question marks can be covered up by an elite defensive line and defense. It also shows that the Steelers can play with anybody and they are contenders in the AFC.
However, Whaley did have one word of advice for the Steelers moving forward, something that might make things easier for them in the future.
"Everybody's talking about Najee [Harris] and the run game and his lack of production. I look at it more as something that [Matt] Canada has to address," said Whaley. "Let's be more committed to the run."
"Najee 's not one of those electric guys that's going to make people miss and have one 20-yard run and you only give him 20 carries per game.
He needs to get 20-25 plus touches, where he can get in a rhythm. When you have a young offensive line, they would rather be going forward. Then they starting building confidence."
Harris played every snap on offense in Buffalo, but only ran for 45 yards on 16 carries, good for a 2.8 yards per carry average. Doug says even if it doesn't look pretty at first, press on.
"You may have one yard here, minus one yard here, two yards here. But you start pounding those guys and then at the end of the game, that's when you can take over that game and that's when you can get that 4 minute offense going."
"And never forget this…I don't care if this is a pass-happy league and all that stuff…you throw to score point but you run to win games. If we would have had a run game when we got the ball back at 5 minutes and just ran the clock out, there would have been no question about it."
Doug also admitted that we probably didn't see all that Matt Canada has to offer in his offensive package for this team.
"I like the diversity in the formations; I think we'll see more. I think we'll see more shifts and motion, but the thing I would like to see is a more dedicated approach to the run."
