Since acquiring him three games ago, Mike Williams has one target for the Pittsburgh Steelers. He has played more than 40 snaps over the past two games but simply hasn’t seen a target. Though he proved he can make plays on the one target he does have, they simply aren’t going his way. And it’s not clear why.
“I don’t know. I’m at a loss to explain it”, Ray Fittipaldo of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette said on 93.7 The Fan on Friday about how the Steelers are using Mike Williams. Fittipaldo thought the Browns game could be a time that changes. “Maybe there’s something going on with the playbook. Maybe he’s not getting open. I know they spent a fifth-round draft pick on him, but it wasn’t like he was lighting the world on fire with the Jets. But at some point, you’ve got to get your best players on the field more”.
Prior to the trade deadline, the Steelers sent the Jets a fifth-round pick to add Mike Williams. While he only played nine snaps in his debut days later, he caught the game-winning 32-yard touchdown. For now, that seems to be just a moment in time because they haven’t gone back to him since.
Williams played 25 snaps without a target against the Baltimore Ravens on Sunday, then 19 against the Cleveland Browns on Thursday. Most of his snaps came on passing downs, yet he did not see a target. Russell Wilson even attempted 36 passes against the Ravens, yet there was none for Williams.
“Mike Williams should play more; he should be targeted more”, Fittipaldo insisted, who has access to Steelers practices. “Their most dangerous players either aren’t playing enough or aren’t being targeted enough, and I think that’s a big problem with what’s going on with that offense”.
Steelers OC Arthur Smith has a history of running one-receiver offenses in terms of volume and production. George Pickens is that one receiver in Pittsburgh, and he usually puts up solid numbers. Calvin Austin III will have a strong game here and there, but ordinarily, guys like Mike Williams are pretty quiet on the stat sheet.
That has certainly been the case over the past two games, but is there a good reason for it? After all, Williams is still new here, having had his first practice just 15 days before Thursday night’s kickoff. We could quite possibly see him more involved the next time the Steelers take the field.
Russell Wilson has 149 pass attempts this season, of which 39 have gone to Pickens, or 26 percent. Austin claims another 13 percent, with Jaylen Warren, Najee Harris, Pat Freiermuth, Darnell Washington, and Van Jefferson claiming between 8 and 11 percent.
Yet Scotty Miller and MyCole Pruitt, who have missed time or been inactive with Russell Wilson, have more targets with him than Mike Williams. Ben Skowronek and Cordarrelle Patterson also match the one target Williams has in three games and 53 snaps. These are the facts. What do they mean to the Steelers, and what do they plan to do with them?
