Play-action can be a very effective tool for a successful NFL offense. With Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Kenny Pickett stating “I love it” in his recent appearance on teammate Cameron Heyward’s Not Just Football podcast, today’s goal is to see the frequency and success Pickett had on play-action his rookie season, along with no play-action for comparative context. Using Pro Football Focus’ (PFF) grades for each, I will take a look at how Pickett fared among his peers in 2022 during the regular season, along with the first and second half of the year to see how things trended.
Let’s see how the quarterbacks with a minimum of 200 dropbacks fared during the full regular season:
For the entire regular season, we see Pickett on the top left of the chart, emphasizing his stronger no play-action passing grade of 72.4, which tied for ninth out of the 35 qualifying quarterbacks. His play-action passing grade came in at 68.5, ranking much lower at 26th. So we can see a big discrepancy in success and frequency in these elements across his rookie year in 2022. Another big takeaway is highlighted by the dot size (play action attempts), with Pickett having only 66 on the year, which was third least of the qualifying quarterbacks (33rd), and highlights how seldomly Pittsburgh utilized it.
Let’s add more context to Pickett’s grades: Play-action – 17.1% dropback rate (T-31st), 65.2 completion percentage (19th), next to last with 343 yards (34th), last in yards per attempt (5.2), no touchdowns, one interception, and a 71.7 NFL Passer Rating that also ranked last. No Play-action – 82.9% dropback rate (T-fourth), 62.5 completion percentage (23rd), 2,061 yards (20th), 6.4 yards per attempt (T-23rd), seven touchdowns (T-29th), eight interceptions (T-20th), and a 77.7 NFL Passer Rating (29th).
It will be very interesting to see if the Steelers and Pickett will incorporate play-action more in 2023, seeing where several of the NFL’s top quarterbacks land in these terms, and considering the positive effect it can have for an offense. This is particularly the case if that includes a strong run game defenses respect, which is of course the hope for the 2023 Pittsburgh Steelers, who showed nice improvement through the 2022 season that can hopefully carry over more consistently this year. What a massive aid this would be in hopes for Pickett to improve as a play-action passer, along with improving as an offense across the board.
Next, let’s look at the play-action results for quarterbacks in the first half of the season (weeks 1-9):
Here we see Pickett on the bottom left of the chart, with a lower 66.7 play-action passing grade than his season average as expected (25th), one of the several elements of the 2022 offense that struggled to open the season. This wasn’t limited to play-action, considering a much lower 57 no play-action grade the first half of the year that also ranked 25th, compared to a 72.4 grade that ranked ninth on the season.
Let’s dive deeper into the stats from weeks 1-9: Play-action – 16.8% dropback rate (30th), 79.3% completion rate (third), but on the least yardage (175) and yards per attempt (6.0), with no touchdowns, one interception, and a 77.4 NFL Passer Rating (32nd). No Play-action – 83.2% dropback rate (fourth), 65.4 completion rate (T-10th), 787 yards (29th), 5.8 yards per attempt (31st), two touchdowns, seven interceptions (tied for second most), and a 62.4 NFL Passer Rating that was dead last.
We really get comparative context to the growing pains at the beginning of the 2022 season when seeing how Pickett fared across the league. Also, Pickett’s play-action opportunities were towards the bottom of the league and lacked success, but it’s likely that many of you painfully recall the struggles across the board and the conservative approach the Steelers offense had during the first half of the 2022 season.
Now let’s see how the quarterbacks fared in the latter half of the 2022 regular season (weeks 10-18):
Pickett lands in the best spot of today’s charts, as you would hope from a rookie quarterback, showing improvement with more experience. This particularly came in non play-action situations, with a much higher 80.6 grade that impressively ranked fourth among the qualifying quarterbacks. This was a substantial improvement, recalling his 57 grade the first half of the season that ranked 25th. The numbers give great data context to what we saw on tape, and of course, contributed to more wins the latter half of the year. Pickett’s 67.3 play-action grade also improved, but was still below league average and ranked 19th, a much more subtle bump from a 66.7 grade that ranked 25th the first nine weeks of 2022.
In the second half of the 2022 season, Pickett’s non play-action stats were excitingly better overall, including an 82.6 percent dropback rate (fourth), 60.6 completion percentage (24th), 1,274 yards (13th), 6.8 yards per attempt (18th), and a very notable improvement with five touchdowns and one interception, contributing to his strongest 87.5 NFL Passer Rating of the year (18th). In play-action, Pickett had a slightly increased 17.4 percent dropback rate (27th), but a 54.1 completion percentage (33rd). The offense started to open things up more overall, but it didn’t translate to play-action success, considering a lower 168 yards (32nd) despite more games played and a stronger run game, a lowly 4.5 yards per attempt that ranked dead last, with zero touchdowns or interceptions, and a 66 passer rating that was next to last.
While Pickett’s overall improvements as a passer his rookie year are undeniable, we can clearly see that play-action is an element of the game that he and the 2023 Pittsburgh Steelers should look to improve and utilize more. This is especially important in my opinion considering the ball control/run first identity that has been built this offseason, and here’s to hoping this is a key cog we see more quantity and quality from Pittsburgh and Pickett this year.
What are your thoughts on the data from 2022? Do you think Pickett and the 2023 offense will improve in this regard? Thanks for reading and let me know your thoughts in the comments.
