The Pittsburgh Steelers are now through the midway point of the regular season in terms of games played. That serves as the perfect benchmark to pause and take stock of what we can learn about how they have run their offense, and so I’m going to take that opportunity to do so now.
- Personnel groupings:
- 01: 9/547 (1.65%)
- 11: 344/547 (62.89%)
- 12: 87/547 (15.90%)
- 13: 47/547 (8.59%)
- 14: 1/547 (.18%)
- 20: 2/547 (.37)
- 21: 21/547 (3.84%)
- 22: 22/547 (4.02%)
- 23: 1/547 (.18%)
- 31: 1/547(.18%)
- VF: 7/547 (1.28%)
- 10 men: 1/547 (.18%)
- As you can see, and not that it should be a surprise, but there are some pretty clear themes here. Even if it hasn’t been as extensive at times as anticipated, through the midway point of the season, the Steelers have used the 11 package almost 63 percent of the time. Formations with multiple tight ends were used almost 30 percent of the time. With minimal use of the fullback position, multi-back sets have been lower than expected, barely over eight percent.
- On 350 drop backs, play action has been used just 37 times, or just 10.57 percent of the time, which is pretty much right where they have been, toward the bottom of the league in usage rate. Excluding two plays nullified by penalty, the Steelers completed 22 of 34 pass attempts for 421 yards, averaging 12.4 yards per pass attempt with two touchdowns and an interception, plus a 14-yard scramble.
- By my count, Sammie Coates leads the team with five drops. Antonio Brown, Darrius Heyward-Bey, Markus Wheaton, and DeAngelo Williams all have three. Jesse James and Le’Veon Bell each have one, and both came against Baltimore. Eli Rogers also has one.
- Despite what it may have seemed like in the preseason, the Steelers have not busted out the no-huddle much except when in dire need. They have played just 129 no-huddle snaps out of 547, under 25 percent.
- The Steelers have had 33 explosive plays on the season. Only two have come on the ground, and one was an end-around. Running backs have just four plays of at least 15 yards on the ground this year.
- Of his 172 snaps played this season, 68 of Xavier Grimble’s snaps have come as the lone tight end. The majority of those snaps have come in the past two weeks at the end of games in the no-huddle.
- This should not exactly be a shock, but Eli Rogers has played just three snaps in two-receiver sets. In contrast, Heyward-Bey has seen over 60 such snaps, while Coates has seen about 30.
- Linemen David DeCastro and Alejandro Villanueva are the only two players to have played every snap.
- Average depth of target – 9.32
- Antonio Brown – 10.74 (91 targets)
- Sammie Coates – 19.88 (42 targets)
- Eli Rogers – 10.4 (30 targets)
- Darrius Heyward-Bey – 18.81 (16 targets)
- Markus Wheaton – 15.5 (10 targets)
- Cobi Hamilton – 16.3 (10 targets)
- Jesse James – 5/13 (38 targets)
- Xavier Grimble – 6.82 (17 targets)
- David Johnson – 7 (6 targets)
- Le’Veon Bell – .04 (47 targets)
- DeAngelo Williams – -.52 (23 targets)
- Fitzgerald Toussaint – -2 (1 target)
