Pittsburgh Steelers running back Issac Redman has admitted that he and his colleagues at his position let the side down in short yardage situations last season.

Mike Tomlin's side have overhauled their backfield in the off-season, allowing former first-round pick Rashad Mendenhall to leave the club and leaving Redman, Le'Veon Bell, LaRod Stephens-Howling and Jonathan Dwyer to battle it out for the starting spot for the upcoming campaign.

Redman told reporters: "We had some missed assignments, which is why we were failing sometimes on short yardage plays.

"In watching the film, we realised those missed assignments kept us from being as good as we could have been."

Pittsburgh begin their pre-season campaign against the New York Giants on Saturday.