The Pittsburgh Steelers are back, baby. You know what that means. It’s time to get weird.
Our weekly “stats of the weird” articles are my favorite to write every week. If you want quirky stats that sometimes mean a little, sometimes mean a lot, this is the place for you. We’ll have an edition following each game but before the year kicks off, here’s some stats we’ll be keeping an eye on throughout the way.
– Mike Tomlin enters the year with 163 career wins. That’s currently 16th all-time. He needs three more to tie the legendary Paul Brown for 15th all-time and one more to hold sole possession of that spot. If Tomlin wins 10 games this season, he’ll pass Bill Parcells and tie Jeff Fisher for 11th in NFL history. He’s 23 wins away from tying Chuck Knox for 10th place in league history.
– My favorite early-season stat to watch is the race between Cam Heyward and T.J. Watt to be the first to break James Harrison’s franchise all-time sack record. Here’s the current leaderboard watch (and this does include unofficial sacks, too).
1. James Harrison – 80.5
2. Cam Heyward – 78.5
T-4. T.J. Watt – 77.5
Watt is currently tied with Joe Greene while L.C. Greenwood sits in third place with 78 sacks.
– With another 1,000-yard season, Najee Harris will become the first back in Steelers’ history to run for 1,000-plus yards in the first three years of his career. He’d be the first NFL running back to do so since Alfred Morris from 2012-14.
And if Harris reaches four digits, he’ll become the first Steelers back with three consecutive 1,000-yard seasons since Willie Parker from 2005-07. Jerome Bettis and Franco Harris are the only other two to do so in Steelers history.
– With 397 yards receiving, Diontae Johnson will be in sole possession of the 10th-most receiving yards in team history, passing Mike Wallace. But it’s a climb from there. Even if Johnson finishes with 1,000 yards, he’ll only be in ninth place ahead of Plaxico Burress and behind Buddy Dial.
– Kenny Pickett’s next multi-touchdown passing game will be the first of his NFL career. It’ll be the first he’ll have since his final college game, the ACC title game win over Wake Forest where Pickett threw a pair of touchdowns. That came on Dec. 4, 2021.
– The last time a Pittsburgh Steelers QB threw multiple touchdowns in a regular season game was Week 14 of the 2021 season.
– Kicker Chris Boswell needs three made field goals to have the second-most in team history, passing Jeff Reed. Gary Anderson is still the franchise’s clear leader with 309.
– If Boswell can make four field goals of 50-plus yards, he’ll have 28 for his career. And that will be more than every other kicker in Steelers history…combined.
– Should Cam Heyward play all 17 games this season, he’ll end the year with exactly 200 of them. It’ll tie him with Mel Blount for fifth-most in team history. The other four who played at least 200 games are QB Ben Roethlisberger (249), C Mike Webster (220), WR Hines Ward (217), and S Donnie Shell (201).
– Though the Steelers are opening up at home for the first time since 2014, they’ve still played nine home regular-season openers since 2001. They’ve only lost one of those, 2011 to Tennessee.
– If T.J. Watt can finish the year with at least 17 sacks, he’ll be in the top five for most sacks in NFL history through a player’s first five years, passing Mark Gastineau. Currently, Gastineau, Al Baker, DeMarcus Ware, Deacon Jones, and Reggie White (Ware and White the only two *official* holders) with at least 90 sacks through their first seven seasons. Watt would already be close to that mark had he not gotten hurt last season.
Don’t think about Watt grabbing that top spot, though. White is still the head-and-shoulders leader with 110. Watt would need to finish 2023 with 33.5 sacks to break his mark.
– If Heyward can hit double-digit sacks this season, he’ll be the first interior lineman 34 years or older to hit 10-plus since Warren Sapp in 2006. Heyward will also be the oldest Steeler to have double-digit sacks in a season, breaking the record he set last season.
If Heyward hits that mark, he’ll become just the fourth Steeler in history with three-straight seasons of 10-plus sacks, joining T.J. Watt, James Harrison, and LaMarr Woodley. That would, obviously, make him the only defensive lineman to ever do it.
