Despite Aaron Rodgers being one of the great deep-ball passers in NFL history, the Steelers haven’t much seen his arm. He isn’t opposed to launching the ball, nor is the offense, but that doesn’t mean you simply do it. Discussing the issue with reporters yesterday, he explained why we’re not seeing more from the vertical passing game, and what needs to change in order to do so.
“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, via the Steelers’ website.
Cover 2 is a zone-based coverage employing two deep safeties designed to keep the football in front of the defense. While there are ways to counter it and still throw deep, it’s still a long-developing play. One way to help Aaron Rodgers push the ball down the field more is to give him more time the throw, but he offered another way.
“Until we get them in one-high [safety looks], it’s gonna be precision passing and short of the sticks”, Rodgers said. When asked about it again, he repeated “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”.
Aaron Rodgers is averaging just 4.7 intended air yards per target this season, which is exceedingly shallow. But the strategy is working, because he is throwing receivers open and the offense is creating space to run after the catch. The Steelers are averaging 7.5 yards after the catch per completion from Rodgers.
Still, the Steelers’ 4.6 intended air yards per attempt is by far the lowest in the NFL. The only other team under six yards per attempt is the Cardinals, and they are at 5.9 yards. Their total completed air yards of just 225 is also dramatically lower than anybody else. Nobody else is even under 400 yards, the lowest being the Cardinals’ 417 yards.
The Steelers have faced eight men in the box on runs about 25 percent of the time. On the whole, they hadn’t exactly thrived, but they showed improvement in their last game. If they can continue that trajectory, they could coax teams to put more players in the box and open up the downfield passing game more for Aaron Rodgers.
Currently, Rodgers ranks 28th out of 36 qualifying quarterbacks in deep-ball percentage, or the frequency of downfield passing. Rodger has only attempted a deep pass on 9.3 percent of his attempts, going 4-for-10 for 78 yards. On two of those completions, he threw a touchdown, but he also has one interception. His PFF grade of 59.8 on deep passes ranks 31st out of 36. His YPA of 7.8 yards also ranks 31st.
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