Steelers news and commentary for Saturday, November 25

Welcome to the Terrible Towel Tales, where we’ll highlight some of the latest stories permeating Steelers media for your reading pleasure every Monday through Saturday. In today’s news…

Major Changes Steelers Must Make After 6-4 Start to 2023 NFL Season | Alex Ballentine, Bleacher Report

We’ve now seen Kenny Pickett play in 23 NFL games. In that sample, he has completed 61.9 percent of his passes, thrown 13 touchdowns to 13 interceptions while averaging 7.0 air yards per attempt in 2023, per Pro Football Reference.

It’s safe to say he’s been limited as a passer.

That doesn’t mean that he can’t develop into an NFL quarterback. His numbers are middling, not terrible, but he has to get some help from his offensive play-calling and system. Pickett is fourth in the league in completion percentage on play-action passes, per PlayerProfiler.

Yet, Pickett is 25th in the league in play-action pass attempts with just 35 on the season.

Tee Higgins ruled out for Bengals ahead of Week 12 game vs. Steelers | Sean Leahy, Yahoo Sports

The Cincinnati Bengals have ruled out wide receiver Tee Higgins for the third straight game as he deals with a hamstring injury.

Bengals head coach Zac Taylor made the announcement Friday after Higgins did not participate in practice for the third straight day. Higgins last played in Week 9 during Cincinnati’s 24-18 win over the Buffalo Bills.

Cornerback Cam Taylor-Britt (hamstring) will also miss Sunday’s game against the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Steelers New OC Talks, Changes Coming to Offense? | Noah Strackbein, All Steelers

The Pittsburgh Steelers began a new era of offensive football this week, moving on from Matt Canada and promoting running back coach Eddie Faulkner to offensive coordinator.

Faulkner spoke for the first time since the news and had plenty to say about how the Steelers will try to improve their offense. No wholesale changes are coming at this point in the year, but that shouldn’t stop them from testing some new theories.