{"id":136146,"date":"2025-06-17T04:47:10","date_gmt":"2025-06-17T04:47:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/136146\/"},"modified":"2025-06-17T04:47:10","modified_gmt":"2025-06-17T04:47:10","slug":"ex-steelers-wr-allen-robinson-ii-says-2023-squad-significantly-underachieved","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/136146\/","title":{"rendered":"Ex-Steelers WR Allen Robinson II Says 2023 Squad ‘Significantly Underachieved’"},"content":{"rendered":"

This year, the Pittsburgh Steelers are hoping to break their streak of playoff losses. They haven\u2019t won a postseason game since the 2016 season, with most of their losses being blowouts. 2023 was one of their most recent trips to the postseason. That season felt like a disaster<\/a> at times, but the Steelers eventually rallied to end the year, winning three straight games to make the playoffs. Unfortunately, they went one-and-done, but former Steelers wide receiver Allen Robinson II thinks that team could\u2019ve been more successful.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor me, my main thing was I wanted to get myself back healthy and I wanted to get to these playoffs, by any means,\u201d Robinson said recently on ShowTimeSpeaks\u2019 YouTube channel.<\/a> \u201cFor us, we had some quarterback changes and different things like that, but I had been there before.<\/p>\n

\u201cMe being able to have and being the person in the room and in the offense that everyone could lean on to a certain degree was huge. That\u2019s across the board. Granted, we end up getting to the playoffs, and I think that\u2019s a team that significantly underachieved. I think we could\u2019ve been a lot better.\u201d<\/p>\n

That was Robinson\u2019s lone season in Pittsburgh, and he helped them finish with a record of 10-7. Things weren\u2019t pretty for most of that year, though. The Steelers cycled through three different quarterbacks. Originally, Kenny Pickett was their starter, but he got hurt. Even when he was healthy, he didn\u2019t seem to be taking a significant step in his second NFL season.<\/p>\n

With Pickett out, Mitch Trubisky took over under center, and things did not look good in Pittsburgh.<\/a> He started two games for them, and the Steelers didn\u2019t win either of those games. In total, he appeared in five games, throwing four touchdowns and five interceptions.<\/p>\n

After three losses in a row down the stretch, the Steelers were sitting at 7-7. Their playoff hopes were in jeopardy. However, they made another change at quarterback, making Mason Rudolph their starter.<\/a> Thanks to him, the Steelers won their final three games of the year, securing their playoff spot.<\/p>\n

In that way, it feels like the Steelers overachieved in 2023. Most teams wouldn\u2019t have come close to the playoffs with such inconsistent quarterback play.<\/p>\n

Also, the Steelers faced the Buffalo Bills in the playoffs that year. That was no easy matchup. The Bills were one of the best teams in the league, having Super Bowl aspirations. Led by Josh Allen, it felt like the Steelers were a long shot to win that game. They would go on to lose 31-17, and the score was 21-0 at one point. It was clear that Buffalo was on a different level compared to Pittsburgh.<\/p>\n

It would be interesting to hear why Robinson thinks that the team underachieved. Perhaps part of that was due to Matt Canada serving as their offensive coordinator for much of the season. If they had fired him before the 2023 season started, perhaps Pickett would\u2019ve developed better, giving them a more productive offense.<\/p>\n

Whether they underachieved or not is up for debate. Had they been a little better on offense, maybe they could\u2019ve avoided some of the unnecessary losses they suffered that year. That could\u2019ve put them in a better position going into the postseason.<\/p>\n

Living in a world of hypotheticals in the NFL can be tough, though. That season was what it was. It resulted in the Steelers making some serious changes, like firing Canada and eventually trading Pickett. Now, they\u2019re still searching for a playoff win.<\/a> Hopefully, Aaron Rodgers and company can avoid the mistakes that the 2023 Steelers made.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This year, the Pittsburgh Steelers are hoping to break their streak of playoff losses. They haven\u2019t won a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":136147,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2026],"tags":[5638,7,570,560,12568,57],"class_list":{"0":"post-136146","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-football","8":"tag-allen-robinson-ii","9":"tag-football","10":"tag-kenny-pickett","11":"tag-mason-rudolph","12":"tag-mitchell-trubisky","13":"tag-pittsburgh-steelers"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/114696896193685420","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136146","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=136146"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136146\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/136147"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=136146"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=136146"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=136146"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}