Continuing the series, I wanted to return to the cornerback position where Pittsburgh Steelers selected Ryan Watts in the sixth round. Today’s goal is to look at and provide stat context for the position using Sports Info Solutions (SIS).
The data in this study looks at the 2022 season as pass rushers, considering many current Steelers have lacked substantial opportunities doing so. Watts did however, and I wanted to see how that stacked up among his peers.
First, let’s look at pass snaps along with pass rushes to get a gauge of the players pass down opportunities:
Of the CBs with double-digit pass rushes, Watts landed just above the mean of those peers with 19, which tied for 18th out of 54 qualifiers. Those opportunities came in the midst of 400 pass snaps, ranking even higher at eighth-most in the 2022 CFB regular season. So, Watts was on the field for Texas at one of the highest snap counts and rushed the passer at an above-average number.
Important context to the position is alignment. Watts played outside corner the most by far (609), followed by 94 in the box. He also had 12 d-line, ten slot, and three free safety snaps. It makes sense that he had more pass rushes in 2022, when he had more opportunities in the box, d-line, and in the slot compared to last season.
2023 was an injury-shortened year, and it would have been interesting to see if the alignment splits would have panned out similarly if he hadn’t missed time. This is especially true since the Steelers are using Watts at safety, and a strong safety/box role that can blitz would certainly aid that goal as opposed to the back end which is patrolled by star Minkah Fitzpatrick.
Next, let’s look at the percentages that the players rushed the passer (pass plays only), and Sports Info Solutions positive play rate: the percentage of pass plays with the player on the field resulted in a positive EPA (lower percentages are best):
Watts lands on the top left of the visual, meaning his 1.3 positive rate was best, tying for tenth-best impressively. As you might have guessed from the first visual, his 4.8 rush rate landed much lower, ranking 31st among the 54 qualifiers. So, great team results when Watts rushed the passer, with nice quality over quantity when he did.
Here are essential numbers for the topic, pressure and sack percentages:
In these terms, Watts lands close to the mean in each data point. The better mark of the two was a 26.3 pressure rate that tied for 19th, compared to his 5.3 sack rate that was right on the line at 25th. More specifically, Watts provided five pressures and a solo sack. While those totals don’t sound like much on the surface, each tied for 15th among all 2022 college CBs that SIS tracks, impressively.
To close, here is a more total view of the players as pass rushers:
- Points Saved Per Rush – The total of a player’s EPA responsibility on pass plays using the Total Points system that distributes credit among all players on the field for a given play (with positive numbers being good). Totals are scaled up to map to the average points scored or allowed on a team level, with the player’s snap count determining how much to adjust. For pass rushers, this includes accounting for sacks, blown blocks forced, turnovers, turnover returns, and other disruptions at the line of scrimmage. Values are modulated using a quality-of-competition multiplier based on each opponent’s previous year of performance).
- Points Above Average Per Play – using the same Total Points system and putting a number to their value above an average level player.
In this broader view, we see that Watts was above-average among CBs as a pass rusher. His points saved per rush tied for 19th, and held the lone spot at 18th in points above average per play.
Watts had top ten ranks in pass snaps (eighth) and positive rate (T-tenth), providing great availability, and good things happening in the Longhorns defense when he rushed the passer. He was also above the mean in points above average per play (18th), pass rushes (T-18th), pressure rate (T-19th), and points saved per rush (T-19th).
Watts landed right at average in sack rate too (25th), and the only data point he was clearly below- average in was rush rate (31st) out of the 54 qualifiers. That is not concerning though, aligning primarily as an outside corner, but important context for him and the CB position overall.
As I stated earlier, the Steelers love blitzing secondary players. But many of those contributions from last season are no longer with the team, along with an overall lack of players with pass rushing on their resume (particularly in 2023). If Watts can prove valuable in these terms, it would surely aid his cause and hopes of earning a spot and/or playing time in the Black and Gold.
