Through the first three weeks of the season, new Pittsburgh Steelers star wide receiver DK Metcalf has found the end zone twice on throws from 41-year-old quarterback Aaron Rodgers.
That should be a positive sign, right?
Not exactly.
Despite scoring two touchdowns, including one in Week 3 against the New England Patriots, Metcalf isn’t seeing the ball as much as everyone expected after he signed a five-year, $150 million deal with the Steelers upon completion of the trade from Seattle.
In the first three weeks, Metcalf has just 17 targets. He’s hauled in 10 passes for 135 yards and the two scores. But his average depth per target (6.3) is less than half of his career average of 12.6. The Steelers are not pushing the ball down the field with Metcalf, and a lot of his targets are in the quick game around the line of scrimmage.
Not that head coach Mike Tomlin is losing any sleep over it.
“I don’t have any reservations about our ability to get DK the ball. If people want to allocate schematics of multiple people to him, that’s why it’s a team game,” Tomlin said Tuesday during his weekly press conference, according to video via the Steelers’ YouTube page. “He’s doing a lot of things well. Really comfortable with the trajectory of our divisional labor in that space. Guys like Calvin Austin [III] are gonna have opportunities to make plays, and you’ve seen that already in a short period of time.
“And so it’s just about the general collective growth and development [that] needs to continue.”
Metcalf leads the Steelers in targets with 17 but is averaging just over 5 targets per game after the big move from Seattle. Last season, Metcalf averaged more than seven targets in 15 games. It’s still very early in the season, but Metcalf’s workload hasn’t been all that encouraging.
Still, it is a team game like Tomlin said, and with so much attention being paid to Metcalf, it’s opening things up for others. Specifically wide receiver Calvin Austin III, who is second on the team with 15 targets and has two touchdowns on the season as well.
But this was always the biggest concern with Metcalf as the WR1 and questions behind him as far as talent and impact. Teams are able to scheme ways to take away Metcalf, and it’s forcing others to step up. So far, it’s been just Austin.
Ben Skowronek has one touchdown on the season, but that was his lone target, and it was in Week 1. The Steelers need to get the tight ends Jonnu Smith, Pat Freiermuth and Darnell Washington more involved in the passing game, and they need to run the football better, too. It’s a team game, and doing those things could open up more for Metcalf.
