Steelers Now
The Houston Texans fired offensive coordinator Bobby Slowik on Friday, cutting loose a coach that one year ago, was fielding head coaching interest, after his unit under-performed in 2024.
Texans offensive line coach Chris Strausser was also a part of Friday’s Houston blood-letting, which happened despite the team winning the AFC South and a first-round playoff game for the second consecutive season.
The aggressive move to jettison from recently successful coaches for the Texans had many Pittsburgh Steelers fans wondering why their team had chosen to hang on to coaches that seemingly performed worse.
But that’s actually not the case.
The Steelers out-scored the Texans, 380 to 372 during the 2024 regular season, and while they were out-gained, it was only by five yards. Furthermore, the Steelers handed out two fewer turnovers, 17 to 19.
So the Steelers had a better offense in 2024. They also did much, much better than reasonable expectations.
Quarterback Russell Wilson saw his interception rate drop, sack rate drop, and his QBR and adjusted net yards per attempt rise from 2023 to 2024. Justin Fields saw improvement nearly across the board in his first season under Steelers offensive coordinator Arthur Smith, increasing his completion percentage, reducing his interceptions and sacks, and improving his quarterback rating, QBR and adjusted net yards per attempt to career highs.
Houston quarterback C.J. Stroud, on the other hand, had a backslide of a second season. His numbers got worse in completion percentage, touchdown rate, interception rate, passer rating, QBR, and adjusted net yards per attempt.
The Steelers passers, even though they ended up middle of the road, were better than they had been in previous stops. Stroud got worse for the Texans, and while both teams certainly want to win, the stakes are higher for Houston to make a coaching move more quickly. They only have Stroud on his rookie contract for three more seasons. They can’t afford for him to take multiple seasons to get right.
The Steelers had nothing committed to any of their quarterback from 2024 beyond last season. Pittsburgh has not officially announced any coaching changes for the 2025 season, one way or the other.
