Outside of screen passes, one area that quarterback Kenny Pickett excels at for the Pittsburgh Steelers is play-action passing.
On the season, Pickett is averaging 8.8 yards per attempt on play-action passes and is 17-of-22 for 193 yards and two touchdowns, according to Pro Football Focus. Of his four big-time throws on the season, one of those has occurred off a play-action fake.
Yet, the Steelers are running play-action just 13.5% of the time that Pickett drops back, again according to Pro Football Focus.
Over the last two seasons the Steelers are using play-action just 18% of the time, according to ESPN.
That number has to increase, considering Pickett’s success using it. Yet the second-year man knows it’s not as simple as just calling more play-action plays within the Steelers’ offense. The run game has to have success to help play-action be as efficient as possible.
“They both work hand in hand. Having success in the run game helps those things. If you’re not having success, I don’t think it’s gonna have as much of an impact as what we’d hope,” Pickett said to reporters Wednesday, according to video via the Steelers’ YouTube page. “So it’s a team effort, working the run game with the passing game. Having everything tied together is a goal of ours.”
Though Pickett might believe that a more successful run game will help the Steelers in the passing game, especially on play-action fakes if they have the desired impact the Steelers seek, it’s well-known in today’s NFL that that theory largely doesn’t add up in today’s offensive league.
Play-action in today’s game of football is successful regardless of how much or how efficiently a team runs the football.
But players and coaches still believe that a successful run game helps out the play-action passing game. In some ways, maybe it does. It can cause that linebacker to take a step downhill quicker or freeze an edge rusher just enough.
The Steelers do need to have better success running the football for a more balanced attack, taking some of the weight off of Pickett’s shoulders to create a successful offense consistently. But that run game success doesn’t have much to do with play-action or its overall usage.
The Steelers need to utilize it more, which could jump-start a stagnant offense, much like Steelers Depot’s own Tyler Wise pointed out in September.
Things aren’t all that easy offensively for the Steelers like they are for some other teams around the league, but with the success Pickett has off play-action, those concepts should be used much, much more to help him take off in the second half of the season.
And who knows: more play-action success could lead to more success in the run game too, as defenses back off the line of scrimmage a bit to deal with the pass. As Pickett said, it all goes hand in hand.
