The Pittsburgh Steelers have had to deal with a number of great receivers during head coach Mike Tomlin’s tenure, particularly this season with the likes of San Francisco’s Deebo Samuel, Cleveland’s Amari Cooper, Los Angeles’ Cooper Kupp, and Cincinnati’s Ja’Marr Chase, so he’s familiar with having to deal with true, star receivers.
Sunday’s matchup against the Buffalo Bills in the Wild Card Round at 1 p.m. Sunday at Highmark Stadium will provide another tough test at the receiver position for the Steelers.
This time, it will be Bills’ star receiver Stefon Diggs, a player that Tomlin has great respect for.
Speaking with reporters Tuesday ahead of the playoff matchup against the Bills, Tomlin spoke highly of Diggs, calling him an elite route runner while stating he has a lot of respect for the Bills’ star.
“He’s an elite route runner. He is one of the best, if not the best. I remember when he came into the league, I was just really shocked by the maturity of his route running,” Tomlin said to reporters, according to video via the Steelers’ YouTube page.
Diggs certainly is an elite route runner. On the season, Diggs averaged 2.8 yards of separation created per route run and averaged 10.1 air yards per target on the season.
According to Pro Football Focus, Diggs had a 95.5 quarterback rating when targeted and averaged 11.1 yards per reception to go along with 3.8 yards after the catch, on average. Those numbers helped Diggs put together a 107-reception season for 1,183 yards and eight touchdowns. Diggs graded out at an 81.1 overall from PFF and was 12-for-29 in contested-catch situations on the season.
But his route running is his calling card.
For Tomlin, a lot of that credit goes to a former player and coach he’s quite familiar with, that being former NFL wide receiver and current Minnesota Vikings’ WRs coach Keenan McCardell.
McCardell was the receivers coach at Maryland when Diggs was coming out of college, and he’s a player that Tomlin once worked against daily when he was the defensive backs coach in Tampa Bay during McCardell’s tenure with the Buccaneers.
“When I saw that Keenan McCardell coached him at the University of Maryland, it made sense because I worked with Keenan years ago,” Tomlin added regarding Diggs’ route running abilities. “Man, Keenan was an elite route runner, and the spirit in which he approaches his craft is very similar. It’s like, I imagine that there’s depth to that relationship. Got a lot of respect for him.”
Just how great is Diggs as a route runner? Coming out of the 2022 season, according to Reception Perception, a website that tracks route running success in all situations for receivers, Diggs has the elusive all-green route tree, meaning he had high-end success on every single possible route run within the game.
That’s some absurd stuff.
The 2023 charts aren’t out yet and won’t be out until the summer of 2024, but there’s a good chance that Diggs will have the all-green route chart again. He’ll be a tough test for Steelers’ rookie cornerback Joey Porter Jr., who will undoubtedly draw the 1-on-1 assignment Sunday in an effort to try and take away the Bills’ star receiver.
The last time Porter faced off against such a great route runner, he struggled in Week 11 against Cleveland’s Amari Cooper. Hopefully, things will be a bit different this time around.
