It is the bye week, and the middle of the season, so that can clearly mean only one thing: the midseason offensive charting notes column for the Pittsburgh Steelers through the first eight games. Enjoy.
- Personnel groupings:
- 01: 12/566 (2.1%)
- 11: 376/566 (66.4%)
- 12: 65/566 (11.6%)
- 13: 10/566 (1.8%)
- 21: 18/566 (3.2%)
- 22: 72/566 (12.7%)
- 23: 1/566 (0.2%)
- V-32: 14/566 (2.5%)
- Now that we have a very substantial sample size to work with, the patterns become more clear. The Steelers have used the 11 personnel package very nearly exactly on two thirds of their offensive snaps this year. But if you add in the 01 personnel snaps, they have had at least three wide receivers on the field 68.5 percent of the time so far this year.
- In contrast, they have had more than one tight end on the field for 148 of their 566 offensive snaps—or let’s say 552, removing the meaningless victory formation snaps. that is about 26.8 percent of the snaps.
- And since we took out the victory formation snaps for the tight ends, we need to go back to the wide receivers. So for meaningful offensive plays—whether the plays counted or not, or were even run—they had three on the field 70.3 percent of the time.
- And as for the fullback, good old Roosevelt Nix, he has played 93 snaps outside of the victory formation. But on two of those snaps, he lined up as a tight end, so I included him in two of the 10 instances of the 13 personnel.
- Through eight games, JuJu Smith-Schuster now has the snap edge over Martavis Bryant, logging 367 snaps to Bryant’s 331. Of course, the latter didn’t dress in the last game, which is the only reason that the rookie passed him.
- The only three players to log every snap so far this year are Ben Roethlisberger, Maurkice Pouncey, and David DeCastro.
- Some rushing numbers by personnel package, including penalties:
- 11: 110 for 363, 3.3-yard average
- 12: 36 for 147, 4.1 average
- 22: 58 for 288, 5 average
- Play action is predictably sparsely-used halfway through the year. 33 instances on 304 dropbacks. The Steelers have gained 177 yards on those 33 plays for a 5.4-yard average. Factor out penalties, sacks, and scrambles, and we get 16 for 29 passing for 188 yards, six yards per attempt, with no touchdowns or interceptions.
- Roethlisberger hasn’t been blitzed a ton this year, a little over 20 percent of the time, 63 snaps. But it hasn’t worked. The Steelers are averaging 8.1 yards per play, and that includes a couple of long defensive pass interference penalties. He’s completed 33 of 56 passes for 467 yards, averaging 8.3 yards per pass attempt. But he has thrown two interceptions with no touchdowns, and been sacked twice, once losing a fumble.
- Average depth of target: 10.55 (296 targets; 275 official)
- Vance McDonald – 12 (10 targets; 9 official)
- Darrius Heyward–Bey – 24 (1 target)
- Xavier Grimble – 12 (1 target)
- Antonio Brown – 14.5 (104 targets; 94 official)
- Jesse James – 5.7 (30 targets; 28 official)
- James Conner – -4 (1 target)
- Le’Veon Bell – 0.04 (45 targets)
- JuJu Smith–Schuster – 9 (36 targets)
- Eli Rogers – 8.6 (16 targets; 15 official)
- Justin Hunter – 14.6 (8 targets)
- Martavis Bryant – 17.1 (41 targets; 36 official)
