While the Pittsburgh Steelers offense hasn’t had much success through the air, it’s certainly not for a lack of trying. QB Kenny Pickett ranks as the NFL’s most aggressive quarterback in the league, per Next Gen Stats. Pickett has an aggressiveness rating of 25.8%, edging out Green Bay Packers QB Jordan Love, who has a 25.3% aggressiveness rating.
The aggressiveness stat measures the percentage of passing attempts a quarterback makes in which there is a defender within one yard or less of the receiver at the time of completion or incompletion. It’s more of a barometer of how often a quarterback is throwing into tight coverage, and Pickett being the highest-rated quarterback in the NFL makes sense given that the Steelers offense has the highest percentage of perfectly covered dropbacks in the NFL.
Pickett isn’t getting much help from his receivers due to a lack of separation, which is causing him to be overly aggressive when making passes. If he isn’t, he’d have to throw the ball away or take a sack. He’s being forced to make tight-window throws which also increases the chances of a turnover and obviously an incompletion. Up until last week, WR George Pickens was struggling to make contested catches, but that turned around last week and he showed the contested catch ability that he had as a rookie.
With Diontae Johnson coming back next week, hopefully, the receivers get more open. Johnson ranked as the NFL’s most open wide receiver last season, and his return should ideally give Pickett more space to hit his receivers. It also lessens some of the coverage that Pickens is getting which should help him become more open, as well.
Outside of Pickett and Love, the next-highest quarterback when it comes to aggressiveness is Buffalo Bills QB Josh Allen, at just 18.9%. The number of tight-window throws Pickett has been forced to make belies the need for this offense to change. Receivers need to do a better job getting open, but they also need to do a better job of being schemed open. Pickett did have accuracy issues earlier in the season, and his four interceptions likely raise the number a little bit. But the offense hasn’t been good so far, and teams just aren’t afraid of Pittsburgh’s offense.
They’ve struggled on the ground and through the air, and hopefully, we see the offense take a jump after their bye week like they did last year. If the receivers can get open more often, Pickett’s life will be a whole lot easier. We’ll see if that happens.
