His four-year tenure with the Pittsburgh Steelers from 2014-17 was quite an interesting one for physical, hard-hitting safety Mike Mitchell.
Signed to a five-year, $25 million deal in free agency after stints with the Oakland Raiders and Carolina Panthers, Mitchell became a fixture in a Steelers secondary that found itself under a ton of scrutiny.
With the Steelers, he was their starting free safety for four seasons, starting all but three games during that time, all three missed games coming in 2017 stemming from a foot injury that he suffered early in training camp.
His best season with the team came in 2016, when he recorded a career-high 80 tackles and had three interceptions and two forced fumbles with nine passes defensed.
Though he was seemingly the easy target for criticism in a secondary that was rather poor during the four years he was there, especially on a defense that seemingly held the Steelers back from true Super Bowl contention, Mitchell was as steady as they come during that time.
With the Steelers, Mitchell finished with 281 tackles, 23 pass breakups and four interceptions in 61 starts. Though he had some struggles and was more active on Twitter than fans wanted to deal with, Mitchell was quietly a strong player for Pittsburgh. Yet despite knowing that, it’s stunning to see Mitchell holding down three Signature Stats records from Pro Football Focus at the safety position, dating back to 2006.
Mitchell holds the PFF record for lowest completion percentage allowed in a season, that coming in 2015. Mitchell allowed just a 23.53 completion percentage that season.
“In his second season in Pittsburgh, Mitchell produced the best coverage season of his career,” PFF’s Mason Cameron writes regarding Mitchell’s completion percentage record. “That season, Mitchell allowed just four completions on 17 targets as the primary coverage defender, breaking this PFF signature stat record set by Sean Taylor back in 2007. In the PFF era, no other coverage player has ever finished with a sub-26% completion percentage allowed in a single season.”
That is rather startling — in an impressive way.
While Mitchell wasn’t targeted a ton as more of a box defender due to his physical downhill nature, allowing just four completions on 17 targets is no fluke, even if it’s a small sample size.
That mark of just four completions allowed is also the fewest in the PFF era dating back to 2006. That same season, Kansas City safety Ron Parker allowed the most in the PFF era with 59, so Mitchell was rather dominant that season in coverage.
The 2015 season turned out to be quite the year for Mitchell in coverage. Along with the completion percentage allowed and the fewest receptions, Mitchell set the mark for most snaps between receptions allowed at 157, according to PFF’s Signature Stats record book.
“Mitchell’s third PFF signature stat record at the position may actually be his most impressive. In 2015, Mitchell played a massive 628 coverage snaps while allowing just four receptions. That number is so large that it nearly doubles the next-highest season – Minkah Fitzpatrick’s 2020; 85.57,” PFF’s Cameron writes.
How about that though? Two Steelers safeties in almost the last decade have two of the best snaps-to-completions-allowed ratio.
Though the two aren’t on the same level at all with Fitzpatrick on a Hall of Fame pace and Mitchell now an assistant defensive backs coach with the Indianapolis Colts, it’s quite remarkable to see Mitchell holding down three coverage records in the PFF era.
He was a common target for criticism when it came to the Steelers defense, but that was often misguided. He was a steady, reliable presence in the secondary. Sure, he had some major misses, but by and large Mitchell was very sound. The Steelers relied on him, and he rewarded them for four years until injuries took a toll.
