James Campen
James Campen
A big part of an offense’s success (or lack thereof) starts up front with blocking. Today I wanted to examine new offensive line coach James Campen’s blocking scheme history over his last five seasons, and compare it to Pittsburgh to see if we should expect any changes.
First, here is a table of the number of snaps in each scheme under Campen by year from Sports Info Solutions (SIS), along with totals sorted by most frequent:
The top two schemes by far, as expected, were pass protection and zone. The second tier includes pull across and duo. Three others land at 100-plus total snaps: slide left, split zone, and slide right. Three more hovered around 50 snaps across the five years: pull outside numbers, pull 2, and pull front. The rest were ten snaps or less: wham, false pull, and cut blocking.
Next, let’s see how Pittsburgh’s results over the last five years compare. I left this table sorted by Campen’s most frequent schemes to more easily see the differences, and listed OL coach names at the bottom for added context:
Pass protection and zone come out on top by a long shot as well, no surprise there. Pull across ranked third for both Campen and Pittsburgh. Then we begin to see differences.
Duo was Campen’s fourth-highest scheme run (294), compared to sixth most for the Steelers (165). This scheme was the biggest difference from Campen and Pittsburgh’s history, substantially. Primarily a rushing concept, these double teams can create more movement at the line and put more on linebackers. An attractive potential change in my opinion.
Fourth most for Pittsburgh in the span was split zone (296), compared to 187 for Campen (sixth-most). This is the top concept that Pittsburgh ran more. It’s an inside zone run, with a player (typically a tight end/h-back) flowing the opposite way to seal the backside. There are certainly benefits to the scheme, and it will be interesting to see how often it’s used under Campen in 2026.
These are by far the biggest takeaways. Here’s a complete list for thoroughness, though, with who ran each scheme more:
Campen: Duo (+129), Slide right (+16), Pull outside numbers (+7).
Pittsburgh: Split Zone (+109), Zone (+102), Slide Left (+34), Pull Front (+21), Pass Protection (+19), False Pull (+13), Wham (+11), Cut Blocking (+5), Pull Across (+2).
Largely speaking, Pittsburgh has the edge in many more schemes due to having more total blocking snaps: 5,073 to Campen’s 4,909. So no huge proclamations otherwise, in my opinion.
If history is any indication, expect to see an increase in duo blocking in Pittsburgh, while split zone might be the biggest concept we could see less of. Can’t wait to see how the schemes and quality of play pan out in Campen’s first season in Pittsburgh.