Airing It Out: Don’t Expect the Same Pitt Offense During the 2023 Season

There wasn’t any point in Daejon Reynolds making a big announcement.

He didn’t come to Pittsburgh for any sort of publicity. He came to work, and as he was hitting the books in the classroom and throwing with the quarterbacks and wide receivers, not many people knew he was in Pittsburgh.

An official announcement came over a week after he arrived on campus, just to let everyone know he officially made the jump from Florida to Pitt, but it’s always been about the work. He saw the appeal in Phil Jurkovec and Christian Veilleux before he arrived, and the early returns have only reinforced his belief.

Even as Reynolds was fielding interest from Miami, West Virginia and Mississippi State in the transfer portal, he saw how Pitt brought in Jurkovec and Veilleux. He’s already built a level of trust with the offensive staff, and what’s he excited about now?

“The fact that we’re going to throw the ball, especially from the two guys that we brought in,” Reynolds said last week at the UPMC Rooney Sports Complex. “I just feel like that’s the big thing.”

He isn’t alone in looking toward the future of a Pitt offense that will operate with more balance than it did in 2022 with now-BYU quarterback Kedon Slovis under center.

“Last year,” Lamar Seymore said last week at the UPMC Rooney Sports Complex, “it was a run-heavy team, and now they want to spread the ball, so that’s better for me as a receiver.

“It was a new system that they just put in, and they had a good running back last year, so it was only right to run the ball.”

Obviously, neither Reynolds nor Seymore was around last season. Reynolds was a sparingly used wideout at Florida while Seymore was a leading receiver at Miami Central High. But both wideouts have lofty goals entering the offseason.

Reynolds was never truly given a chance to shine at Florida, with just 16 targets during his redshirt freshman campaign in 2022, but he produced when given the opportunity. He hauled in 12 receptions for 239 yards (19.9 yards per catch) and two touchdowns over two limited seasons at Florida, and he’s already working to take the next step.

“(Cignetti) was talking to me a lot about what Jared Wayne did here,” Reynolds said. “He almost went for 1,100 yards, and he’s in the draft this year. He feels like I can duplicate kind of what he did … exploit our passing game a lot more.”

Reynolds put together his best performance of the season against Vanderbilt, which he likes to remind people is still an SEC opponent, as he hauled in eight receptions for 165 yards (20.2 yards per catch) and two touchdowns.

He feels like the Vanderbilt game was the only game he had last season where he had the chance to actually showcase his abilities. In his eyes, he’s a playmaker, someone who can play inside and outside and still go out and serve as a lead blocker.

Reynolds looks to Philadelphia Eagles’ star A.J. Brown for inspiration in his game. When he goes up to make a catch, it’s his ball or no one else’s. And with a similar 6-foot-2, 200-pound frame, there’s potential for an emerging contested catch artist.

Reynolds is a bit stockier than Seymore at this point, as Seymore stands at 6-foot-2, 185 pounds, but Seymore holds himself to a similar standard. He’s a wideout who gets open and scores touchdowns — even as a true freshman, he expects to make an impact on the field as an impact wideout.

“I work hard,” Reynolds said. “I’m competitive, too. If we do one-on-ones, I wouldn’t let a DB try to lock me up.”

It’s a wide receiver’s room that will need to replace its No. 1 target in 2022, who was also the vocal leader in the room, and Konata Mumpfield and Bub Means are the only returners with significant experience. It’s a largely inexperienced unit.

Myles Alston, Che Nwabuko and Addison Copeland each boast a different skillset, but none have recorded a catch at the college level. Israel Polk, Kenny Johnson and Zion Fowler are all entering the system for their first collegiate seasons.

It’s not just the wide receivers in flux either, as Slovis and Israel Abanikanda will also be elsewhere in 2023. It’s a chance for Cignetti’s offense to reset, to get a fresh start with the personnel at its disposal now. There are two new quarterbacks, a couple of talented running backs and a young, unproven wide receivers corps.

Veilleux, who will be competing with Jurkovec for the starting spot at quarterback throughout the offseason, sees the potential. He’s seen Cignetti’s scheme — the vision that Cignetti has for how he wants the offense to operate. And he believes in what could be.

“We’re definitely going to air the ball out, have a strong run game and we’re gonna get people open,” Veilleux said last week at the UPMC Rooney Sports Complex. “That’s Cignetti’s big thing, getting people open. So, we have the potential to do a lot of damage this year.

“Just watching the film that he puts on of NFL teams running this stuff, what he did at (Boston College), there’s a lot of potential. Just because last year they ran a lot of run plays doesn’t mean that this year’s going to be the same.”

There is a lot of work to be done between now and Sept. 2, when Wofford comes to town for the season opener, but Reynolds still wishes he could travel ahead to the opening kickoff against Wofford right now.

There’s no doubt that the trio of Rodney Hammond Jr., Derrick Davis Jr. and C’Bo Flemister will be a key component of the offense in 2023, but it won’t be an offense that will be hamstrung by its quarterback play either.

It will be intriguing to follow the offensive growth throughout the spring and into training camp over the summer.