The Pittsburgh Steelers Were active at the trade deadline, making two moves. After hearing that the Steelers acquired WR Mike Williams, a more surprising move to strengthen their EDGE group by trading a seventh-round pick for former Green Bay Packer Preston Smith.
Today, I wanted to look at and focus on 2024 pass rush data on Smith, including league-wide and current Steelers. Included is a full rankings table by the end of the article for context. The goal is to compare how things have gone so far this season, and what smith could provide the Black and Gold.
Let’s get right to it, starting with 2023 pass rush snaps and pass rush wins versus blocking:
Smith lands just above the mean in pass snaps (187), which ranks 54th out of the 112 qualifying edge rushers (min. 75 pass snaps). His role was diminishing with the Packers, who switched to a 4-3 defense, which Smith played the majority of his career and now returns to in Pittsburgh.
We see that Smith’s production wasn’t ideal, with just 13 pass rush wins, tying for 86th. The mean is 19 for context, which star Pittsburgh EDGE T.J. Watt is well above (34, T-15th) along with Alex Highsmith despite missing three games. The latter is true for Nick Herbig as well, and has more pass rush wins (15) than Smith as well despite vastly lower opportunities.
Here are hurries and total pressures to see how the players fared effecting the quarterback:
The first thing that jumps out is all four focused players being below average in hurries. Highsmith has the best mark at ten (52nd). Ironically, Smith ties with Watt at six (81st). While tying Watt in anything that pass rush related might seem encouraging, Smith is definitely not garnering the double/triple teams he gets.
Smith’s ten total pressures lands a bit lower at 84th. Both are clearly well below average, but seeing hurries as his better mark over total pressures is of course better. With the talent across Pittsburgh’s d-line, hopefully that continues to stick out much more the rest of 2024.
Here’s an interesting formula from PFF called Pass Rush Productivity (PRP), which is defined as the amount of pressure accumulated per pass rush snap, also giving weight towards sacks along with pass snaps.
This view also includes true pass set PRP (excludes play action, screens, short dropbacks, and time to throw numbers under two seconds) eliminating most plays in which the pass rusher was less likely to produce:
Smith lands well below average again, and below the rest of his new teammates. His 4.1 PRP ranks a lowly 92nd/112, along with a 5.6 true pass set (TPS) PRP lands a spot lower at 93rd. Not good Bob.
Some 2024 production though, with 2.5 sacks and four QB hits will hopefully be the quality he’s capable of with less quantity. There’s optimism for a positive trend considering his career resume, 68.5 sacks over ten years.
Here are total pass rush and true pass set win percentages:
Similar to the previous view, Smith has the lowest result of focused players, and the only below the mean rates of the group. His 8.2 pass rush win rate ties for 78th, and 11.3 TPS win rate landing better at 73rd.
Not ideal of course, but seeing these important rates landing better than other stats, and a bit of a push in TPS (where production is more expected) are small victories that are hopefully much more impactful in Pittsburgh.
To close, here are PFF grades for the position group in the same situations (overall/true pass sets):
I know PFF grades aren’t everyone’s cup of tea, but including this visual really illustrated the high opinion they have for Pittsburgh’s top three edge rushers. Smith’s 2024 season thus far has been a far cry from that to say the least, particularly with a lowly 58.0 pass rush grade that ranks 83rd.
While it’s still below average, his 63.4 grade land much better in TPS lands much better in comparison (58th), and points to some better quality coming in more expected situations. On one hand that’s good to see, but not being able to step up against NFL tackles this season points to Steelers fans needing to temper expectations on what he can be as a pass rusher.
The other side of the coin is Smith has proven capable over the majority of his career, as recently as last season with eight sacks. Hopefully that’s what occurs in his change of scenery with Pittsburgh.
Here is a wrap up rankings table of the data:
The visual hammers the overall point of the article, that it’s been a down year for Smith as a pass rusher. On the optimistic side, he stated that the 4-3 defensive scheme change in Green Bay wasn’t fitting his style and strengths, so a return to a 3-4 scheme with Pittsburgh and a career of production in it could lend to a stronger end to the season.
Also, playing as a depth piece, keeping the veteran fresh will hopefully lead to more quality over quantity. Paired with Smith’s 2024 run defense still providing some encouraging things, the addition, especially for the low cost, was a great move for the Pittsburgh Steelers on paper.
Thanks for reading and let me know your thoughts in the comments.
