Welcome to your weekly Pittsburgh Steelers “stat pack,” five numbers you need to know to get ready for the team’s upcoming game. They could relate to the opponent, the Steelers themselves, and could involve an individual, unit, or something else. All to help you become the smartest fan for gameday.
7.5
Per NextGenStats, that’s the amount of cushion that defenders give WR Calvin Austin III. Tied for fourth-highest among all NFL players behind an odd collection of names in Baltimore’s Zay Flowers, New England’s JuJu Smith-Schuster, and Arizona’s Michael Wilson, who all sit at 7.7.
Austin’s speed was on display early in the season when he burned the Las Vegas Raiders for a 72-yard touchdown. Since then, he’s noted defenses have played him differently and perhaps that’s why he’s been quiet since then. With Diontae Johnson back last Sunday, Austin saw just seven offensive snaps and wasn’t targeted once.
28
That’s the number of days since either team, the Jaguars and Steelers, has lost a game. Jacksonville hasn’t dropped a game since September 24, a Week Three game against the Houston Texans, while the Steelers haven’t fallen since October 1, also to the Texans. Since then, the Jags have won their last four while Pittsburgh has won their last two. Something’s gotta give Sunday unless, of course, these two teams tie.
80 Percent
The snap percentage Jaguars’ RB Travis Etienne has played this season, leading the NFL. Etienne also leads the league with 127 carries. Coming out of the 2021 NFL Draft, the Steelers chose RB Najee Harris over Etienne in part because of Harris’ size and ability to be an everydown player. As of now, Harris is firmly in a committee while Etienne is the Jags’ “guy.”
Three
The number of teams with just one player who has more than 200 yards receiving this season, the Steelers being one of them. Only WR George Pickens is over that mark with 500 yards this year. The next closest Steelers’ receiver is RB Jaylen Warren with 165. The next closest wide receiver is WR Allen Robinson with 144, though now-healthy WR Diontae Johnson should soon catch up.
The only other teams who can claim the same are the Tennessee Titans and Arizona Cardinals. The Cardinals should be in a class of their own considering they haven’t had their bye week and played in seven games, compared to the Titans and Steelers who have only played in six.
24.5 Percent
That’s QB Kenny Pickett’s “aggressive” percentage defined by NextGenStats as: “the amount of passing attempts a quarterback makes that are into tight coverage, where there is a defender within 1 yard or less of the receiver at the time of completion or incompletion.”
For Pickett, that rate is second-highest in the NFL only behind Green Bay’s Jordan Love (25.4 percent). Largely speaking, the top quarterbacks have a low aggression rate. Lamar Jackson, Patrick Mahomes, Joe Burrow, and Tua Tagovailoa all sit in the top ten lowest rates, as does Jacksonville’s Trevor Lawrence (11.7 percent). Quarterbacks who lead the NFL in aggression rate include: Love, Pickett, Josh Dobbs, Zac Wilson, and Mac Jones.
It goes back to what Steelers QB Coach Mike Sullivan said during the bye week that Pickett was being too aggressive and those moments were hurting him. This is a number we’ll be monitoring for the rest of the year and one that, based on the evidence, needs to decrease.
