Why haven’t the Steelers targeted WR Mike Williams over the past two games?
The Steelers seemed to want Mike Williams pretty bad—or at least some notable wide receiver. While they pursued a list of names before landing on Williams, they still gave up a fifth-round pick for him. And he made the game-winning play in his Steelers debut but hasn’t seen another target since.
In three games with the Steelers, Mike Williams has one catch on one target for 32 yards and a touchdown. It hardly gets more efficient than that—if you ignore the fact that he is playing a decent amount. While he only played nine snaps in his first game, he has played 49 snaps since then and hasn’t even seen a target.
Wassup wit that?
Even without Williams catching a pass Thursday night in Cleveland, Russell Wilson still threw for 270 yards on only 28 attempts, to be fair. He averaged nearly 10 yards per attempt, which is very respectable, and he hit on several chunk plays. Those are the sorts of things Mike Williams is supposed to provide, and the Steelers aren’t really lacking them absent his contributions.
Now, the Steelers only had Williams in the building for two weeks leading into Thursday’s game against the Browns. And they didn’t have much time to put together a game plan for him on a short week in Cleveland. I get that.
But they still put him on the field for 19 snaps, and plenty of those were passing downs. If Mike Williams is out there running routes, he is available to make a catch. And the Steelers keep talking him up like they think he makes a difference in their offense with the dimension he can add, so where is it?
Okay, so maybe we’ll see the Steelers incorporate him into the scheme more in Week 13, now that they have a mini bye to put some brain power behind it. Wilson and Williams have more time to build a rapport, gain some nuance in their connection. Maybe his time is still coming. But it’s still frustrating to see him not contributing with his primary function—catching passes—in a losing effort.
The Steelers’ 2024 season is underway, following another disappointing year ending in a first-round playoff loss. They have had a long offseason since the Buffalo Bills stamped them out of their misery back in January. There are positive signs, but things could jump off the rails any moment.
The biggest question hanging over the team is the quarterback question. Is Russell Wilson earning a lucrative new deal next year, and is Justin Fields still in consideration? How will the team continue to address the depth chart, which is surprisingly still in flux?
The regular season is here, following weeks of camp and preseason games. The Steelers made numerous moves through signings and trade—and release. More than usual, they seemed comfortable creating holes, confident they can fill them. Some they managed to fill, others not so much. Now that we have so many pieces of the puzzle, however, we merely have a new set of questions to ask.
