Take everything you’re about to read with a grain of salt. Two grains, maybe.

Passing judgement on a team’s pre-season performance is a fool’s errand. Teams are not game-planning for their pre-season opponents. They are mixing and matching personnel as they make evaluations and experiment with packages. Their schemes are vanilla as they try to hide their intentions from their regular season opponents.

Still, through two pre-season games, the Steelers have had enough reps to form an early impression, particularly on offense. While star players like T.J. Watt, Minkah Fitzpatrick and Cam Heyward have sat out the pre-season on defense, the offense has featured its best players for the better part of ten possessions. In those ten possessions — five with Russell Wilson at quarterback and five with Justin Fields — Pittsburgh has run 48 plays with some version of their “ones.” They’ve gained just 157 yards, scored three points, yielded five sacks and seen half of their drives end in a three-and-out. It’s been underwhelming, to say the least.

There are caveats to offer for the lack of production. The line needs time to gel, the quarterback situation is unsettled and the entire unit is still learning Arthur Smith’s system. My suspicion is Smith is showing little of his hand right now as well. Still, those caveats mask some legitimate concerns. Here are the three I find most significant.

Is the offensive line as good as we thought it would be?

The Steelers have invested some heavy capital up front the past few years. They’ve used high draft picks on Broderick Jones, Troy Fautanu and Zach Frazier and spent significant free agent money on James Daniels and Isaac Seumalo. The unit showed steady improvement last season and was expected to be a strength of the offense this year. PFF ranked the Steelers as having the 10th best offensive line in the league entering the season. Unfortunately, through two pre-season games, they’ve looked like anything but.

Again, grain of salt. It’s been ten offensive possessions with some semblance of the first unit, and in those ten possessions they’ve used six different configurations. No doubt injuries and experimentation have factored into the lack of continuity. Once the coaching staff settles on its best five up front and gives them the lion’s share of the reps, things should improve.

Should improve. Improvement is not inevitable, and the line has some issues at present. Jones has looked awful so far. His technique has been bad and his movement lackluster. Nate Herbig, who was expected to start the season at center, is out for an undetermined amount of time, all but assuring Frazier will start. Frazier is the future of the position for the Steelers. The question is whether he’s ready to be the present. Fautanu is hurt as well, which will delay his development.

The line is integral to Smith’s run-heavy, play-action scheme, but it must round into shape quickly for the offense to be productive.

Do they need to make a move at wide receiver?

I’ve been answering “yes” to this question since I visited training camp back on August 1st. George Pickens wowed me, and I was impressed with Van Jefferson as his sidekick. Beyond those two, no one popped.

That lack of a serviceable third receiver has carried over to the pre-season. In the absence of rookie Roman Wilson, who has been out the past few weeks with an ankle injury, Pittsburgh has gotten little production from the back end of their receiving room. Scotty Miller is doing some good things, but mostly against back-ups. Calvin Austin III has caught just two balls and is struggling against jam coverage. He also had some mental errors against Buffalo on Saturday night, including a false start and a play where he lined up wrong that forced the Steelers to call a timeout. Quez Watkins has made news for bad execution as a punt returner and little else. No one besides Pickens has been able to consistently separate. As an example, Russell Wilson completed eight passes against the Bills for just 47 yards. A lack of open receivers down the field forced him into constant checkdowns. It’s a group that feels short, and the results on the field are bearing that out.

The Brandon Aiyuk trade doesn’t seem like it’s happening. And while I’m in favor of the Steelers reuniting with Juju Smith-Schuster, he was just released by the Patriots, which makes you wonder at what level he can still play. Perhaps Roman Wilson will bring life to this unit needs when he returns from injury. They need someone to do so. Because right now, as a group, they have not been impressive.

Are we sure Russell Wilson is the best quarterback for this offense?

Three of Wilson’s first four drives against Buffalo ended in three-and-outs, and the team produced no points on his five possessions. Still, you can’t be too hard on Wilson for his performance. Buffalo blanketed Pittsburgh’s receivers and applied heavy pressure with their front. Wilson was sacked three times and pressured constantly. The incessant checkdowns were a product of necessity, not poor quarterback play.

Fields didn’t fare much better. He led a drive at the end of the first half that produced the Steelers’ only points, a field goal from Chris Boswell, and he took the back-up offense into the red zone twice in the fourth quarter before turning the ball over on downs. Fields also missed an open T.J. Luther on a post route that would have been a touchdown. He spent many of his drop-backs scrambling for his life, forced to throw from awkward platforms or take off running.

Which brings us to the question at hand. While watching the two quarterbacks play, did any of you get the feeling that Fields was the more dynamic option? I certainly did. Wilson got the ball out quicker and made safer decisions. But he looked like what he is — a 36-year-old playing serviceable football at the back end of his career.

Fields looked like a player with whom the offense could score at any moment. They didn’t, outside of the Boswell kick, but every time Fields pushed the ball down the field or left the pocket, I sat up in my chair a little. The energy Fields brought had me anticipating something great. Bears fans can probably relate to that last sentence. Fields broke more than a few of their hearts by not being able to deliver on his tantalizing ability while in Chicago. And as he demonstrated by overthrowing Luther at the goal line, he’ll probably do that at times in Pittsburgh as well. But in an offense that needs more play-makers, Fields could be the difference.

It’s far too soon to pass judgement on Wilson. He played good football for stretches in Denver last season, and he could do it again in Pittsburgh. There’s a ceiling on what Wilson brings, however, and it’s lower than the one on Fields. Fields has a lower floor, of course, and is clearly the bigger risk. I understand why the Steelers, who are built to win close games with their defense and rushing attack and don’t need the quarterback to perform miracles, may prefer Wilson. But if it’s a toss-up between the two, I’d love to see them build around Fields’s erratic but significant skill set over Wilson’s diminishing one.

Conclusions

Pittsburgh has a lot to figure out on offense and a short time to do it. They have a final pre-season game next Saturday in Detroit, then 15 days before the season-opener in Atlanta. Between now and then, they need to get Jones right, bring Frazier up to speed, solidify the receiver room and choose a quarterback. I haven’t even mentioned the kinks they must iron out in learning Smith’s offense. It’s a lot.

The good news is that most teams are dealing with similar issues and questions. Pittsburgh should look like a different team by the time they take the field in Atlanta. One way or another, that team needs to be better on offense than the one we saw the past two weeks.