If things go as planned, the Pittsburgh Steelers will have their Killer Bs all on the field at the same time for their 2017 regular season opener against the Cleveland Browns and will that ever be a sight for sore eyes.
In case you didn’t already know it by now, the last time the Steelers had quarterback Ben Roethlisberger, wide receiver Antonio Brown, wide receiver Martavis Bryant and running back Le’Veon Bell all on the field at the same time together was during the team’s 2015 Week 8 home loss to the Cincinnati Bengals. In fact, those 17 offensive snaps in that game were the only ones those four players were on the field together for the entire 2015 season, according to our own game charting.
In case you’re curious, the Steelers ran a total of 10 pass plays that included Roethlisberger, Brown, Bryant and Bell all on the field at the same time in that game against the Bengals and the quarterback was 6 of 8 passing for 51 yards and a touchdown pass. The two other plays were wiped out by penalties and one of those was a holding call on tackle Marcus Gilbert on a 17-yard completion to then Steelers fullback Will Johnson.
By now, you all are probably pretty curious as to how much the Steelers Killer Bs have played together over the course of the last three seasons. If you remember back to 2014, Bryant was inactive for the Steelers first six games of that regular season and thus didn’t make his NFL debut until the Week 7 game against the Houston Texans. From that game forward and through a good part of the regular season finale against the Bengals, Roethlisberger, Brown, Bryant and Bell all played together in all 10 of those games and according to our game charting, that constituted roughly 233 total offensive snaps.
In that string of 10 games, the Steelers went 8-2 and as for Roethlisberger, he completed 68.4% of his pass attempts for 3,359 yards with 24 touchdowns and just 6 interceptions in those contests. Bell, by the way, rushed for 819 yards and 7 touchdowns in those 10 games and caught another 55 passes for 603 yards and 3 touchdowns.
As for those roughly 233 2014 regular season offensive plays that the Steelers Killer Bs were all on the field together for, our charting from that year shows that roughly 155 of them included Roethlisberger attempting a pass that did not include NO PLAYS. Roethlisberger completed 99 of those attempts for 1,435 yards and 9 touchdowns and he threw just 3 interceptions. If you’re scoring at home, those Roethlisberger passing numbers add up to be a quarterback rating of 105.2 and a very stellar 9.26 yards per attempt.
As far as Roethlisberger’s deep pass attempts go in those 10 games in which he had Bell, Brown and Bryant all on the field with him at the same time, he was a very respectable 16 of 39 (41%) for 605 yards with 6 touchdowns, of which 5 were caught by Bryant, according to our own game charting.
Oh, I even failed to mention that the Steelers averaged 29.3 points per game in the 11 contests that all four players suited up for together.
You obviously don’t need me to continue spell out things anymore for you when it comes to the Steelers need of having their Killer Bs all on the field together at the same time in 2017 and the fact that such an occurrence has only happened roughly a total of 250 offensive snaps over the course of the last three seasons is downright disgusting to think about. In short, that’s the equivalent to a quarter of a season and thus it’s exciting to think about just how good that side of the football might be in 2017 should the Killer Bs all manage to make it through the entire season together.
