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USA Today Sports Media Group
USA Today Sports Media Group
Sport
Curt Popejoy

4 things that must happen over the Steelers’ bye week

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The Pittsburgh Steelers are hopefully enjoying their bye week and using the time off to rest up, heal up and contemplate the second half of the season. Pittsburgh sits at 2-6 with nine games to play and there are more questions than answers about this team. Here are four things that must happen over the bye week.

The roster needs to come together

Rich Storry-USA TODAY Sports

Frustration was starting to spill over into the media toward the end of the first half of the season. Let’s hope the team can get together over the break, reconnect and squash all this negativity.

Get William Jackson ready to play

 Geoff Burke-USA TODAY Sports

No one is saying newly-acquired cornerback William Jackson III is the savior of the secondary. Even at his best he’s not the team’s No. 1 cornerback. But the more experienced players the team can field in the secondary the better and Jackson has proven he can play at a high level.

Get George Pickens acclimated to his new position

(AP Photo/Jeff Dean)

The trade of Chase Claypool means rookie phenom George Pickens will line up outside opposite Diontae Johnson. It’s safe to assume Pickens and Johnson will spend some time in the slot given the right situation but Pickens should develop quickly on the outside.

Figure out what the offense can do

(AP Photo/Keith Srakocic)

It’s so frustrating to hear a professional football team talking about lacking an offensive identity 2 months into the season. Time is running out to salvage anything this year so getting that whole identity thing squared away this week would be great.

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