The Pittsburgh Steelers have had some outstanding wide receivers play for the franchise and put up some amazing numbers in the Pro Football Focus era.
That back to the 2006 season, so there are some impressive names that have played for the franchise in that span, including Hines Ward, Mike Wallace, Emmanuel Sanders, Antonio Brown, Martavis Bryant, and JuJu Smith-Schuster.
But when it comes to the record books at PFF, one name stands alone for the Steelers from a production standpoint in one specific category.
Average depth of target.
It’s not a player you’d think it would be, either.
That player? Sammie Coates.
In the PFF era, Coates has the longest average depth per target in a single season, racking up 21.6 yards per target for the Steelers in 2016. That number is the highest ever in the PFF era, as highlighted in PFF’s article Thursday on the PFF record book featuring wide receiver stats.
“Although a lack of volume can lead to inflated numbers in this category, this is an accolade for the true deep threats of the league. As impressive as Coates’ role was to grab this title, his 51 targets over the year barely qualify him for this record,” PFF’s Mason Cameron writes regarding Coates holding the record for longest average depth of target in the PFF era. “Coates was targeted 20-plus yards downfield on 53.7% of his targets over the 2016 regular season and he caught eight deep passes for 351 yards.”
Coates was a serious deep threat in 2016 for the Steelers, finally putting all the promise together that he had coming out of Auburn. Coates opened his second NFL season with a 42-yard catch against Washington in Week 1 on Monday Night Football. He followed that with a tw0-catch, 97-yard performance against the Cincinnati Bengals the following week, hauling in passes of 44 and 53 yards, the first of which set up a 20-yard touchdown for Xavier Grimble. The second reception of the day set up a 9-yard touchdown for Jessie James.
After that performance against the Bengals, Coates quietly put up a three-catch, 50-yard performance against the Philadelphia Eagles in Week 3 before really breaking out in Weeks 4 and 5, combining for 12 catches for 218 yards and two touchdowns, both scores coming against the New York Jets in his six-catch, 139-yard performance in Week 5.
That day, Coates scored a 72-yard touchdown and a 5-yard touchdown as Roethlisberger leaned heavily on him, targeting him 11 times — tied with Le’Veon Bell and Antonio Brown — in the 31-13 win.
Following that breakout though, Coates lacerated and broke his finger late in a game against the Jets and was never the same after that. In fact, he recorded just two receptions for 14 yards after that game against the Jets and never played for the Steelers again, landing in Cleveland after being traded to the Browns just before the start of the 2017 season.
After he caught just six passes for 70 yards that season in Cleveland, Coates landed with the Houston Texans in 2018 and hauled in just one pass. Now, he’s a a coach at Ohio Northern University.
But Coates will always have those first six weeks of the 2016 season, putting him in the record books at PFF for the highest average depth per target, thank to Roethlisberger airing it out time and time again for Coates in an effort to provide the Steelers with some splash.
