Steelers Now
PITTSBURGH — The Pittsburgh Steelers have the lowest air yards per attempt in the league at 4.7 yards. During his media availability on Thursday, Steelers offensive coordinator Arthur Smith explained the lack of deep shots. Essentially, the Steelers are taking what they’re given and being smart with the football. The complete opposite of Bruce Arians’ “no risk it, no biscuit” approach.
“At the end of the day, we got a lot of reps, and when we call a play, I trust (Aaron Rodgers),” Smith said. “Sometimes, you’re trying to set something up or hit a double move deep, you don’t have the look you want. I call it the Uncle Rico move, where you see guys where they just launch one against single-high and the guy just goes up and gets it. You can scheme things up and maybe they bite on it and launch it that way and you can hit the second level.”
Aaron Rodgers gets rid of the ball faster than any other quarterback in the NFL. His average time to throw this season is 2.52 seconds, according to Next Gen Stats. Teams playing Cover 2 has played a big role in the short quick passes.
“Teams are playing Cover 2. When you’re playing Cover 2, there’s not gonna be a ton of big shots down the field,” Rodgers said on Wednesday. “Until we get them in one-high safety looks, it’s gonna be precision passing and short of the sticks. If you’re playing Cover 2, there’s not gonna be a lot of shots open down the boundary, We’re just trying to be efficient.”
According to Next Gen Stats, Rodgers recorded an average time to throw of 2.17 seconds in the Steelers’ Week 4 win over the Minnesota Vikings, his quickest average time to throw in a game since at least 2016. On quick throws (under 2.5 seconds), he completed 13 of 16 pass attempts for 174 yards and a touchdown. Metcalf caught a 22-yard pass from Rodgers and went the distance for an 80-yard touchdown.
Entering Week 5, Metcalf led all NFL wide receivers in yards after the catch with 199. Metcalf said he watched a lot of Cooper Kupp to work on his YAC game.
Against the New York Jets in Week 1, Metcalf had a 31-yard catch and run that was virtually all created on his own accord. On that play, he hit 21.25 MPH, per Next Gen Stats.
Metcalf entered the Vikings game having caught 10 balls for 135 yards and two touchdowns, both red zone floaters from Rodgers.
“Coverage dictated that,” Rodgers said of Metcalf getting involved early. “We moved him around pretty good, had some good motions to get him off some doubles and it was just coverage. He had single (coverage) on the back shoulder fade. He had Cover 2, but we had nice play action and that’s what DK does best. He can really run and it was nice to get him going early.”
Rodgers added that he was able...
