In Week Seven of the 2024 NFL season, we saw the Pittsburgh Steelers passing game come to life, including play-action. Our Alex Kozora highlighted the topic well recently, stating Wilson’s effective play-action was a game-changer for Pittsburgh’s offense.
A couple of stats stood out in that post. My goal today is to add more context to that great Steelers focused article, and see how Pittsburgh’s quarterbacks have stacked up league-wide.
First, let’s look at PFF’s completion rate and yards per attempt differentials (play-action – non play-action):
This visual really puts into context how much better Wilson fared in play-action in his debut. He had 13 play-action drop backs, tying for second-most in Week Seven. Looking at the 40 QBs with that many opportunities across the entire 2024 season, Wilson has the second-best 33.2-percent completion rate differential and 6.8 yards per attempt differential. The chart also illustrates this being the best-balance of the two stats among qualifiers.
Let’s compare that to Fields. In six games, a 30th-rank in completion rate differential (-2.5), and next-to-last 39th rank in yards per attempt differential (-2.4). A substantial difference in Wilson being the more effective play-action passer in 2024 to say the least.
This is also crucial considering the Steelers offense now uses play-action often. Currently second-most in the league under OC Arthur Smith compared to dead-last in 2023 before his hiring (frustratingly), which our Steelers Depot crew thought might be his biggest impact in Pittsburgh. Married with Wilson’s effectiveness last week, this was a big breath of fresh air.
Of course, Wilson’s small one-game sample size is an important caveat. This is also true for the top ranks in each stat as well, with Colt Anthony Richardson having the best-balance on more opportunities having played in five games.
Another flipside to the differential stat is Wilson struggling in non play-action in his first Steelers game. On 17 such attempts, he had 6.3 YPA (25th) on a rough 41.2-percent completion rate that’s dead-last among qualifiers this season. In comparison, 12 play-action attempts, 75.0 completion rate (T-sixth), and 13.1 play-action YPA ranks first in the NFL.
Such a high play-action completion rate as Wilson pushed the ball further down the field than any other QB is quite encouraging moving forward. While play-action was the focus of this article, a concern arose. Why were there so many issues in non play-action?
Some of this was shaking of rust after not playing in the regular season for nearly a whole calendar year. Included was flat out missed throws and accuracy issues that will optimistically look better with his debut in the books. I’m expecting just that. Why?
Wilson had the second-best Adjusted Completion Percentage In 2023, a stat that accounts for outside factors (drops, throwaways, spikes, batted passes, hit as thrown) from a QBs overall completion rate for a better idea of accuracy. So, there’s little worry regarding the non play-action issues in Week 7, while Wilson hopefully continues to cook on play-action.
