PITTSBURGH -- The Pittsburgh Steelers can’t throw the ball down the football field.
Through four games, Aaron Rodgers has just six passes of 20 or more air yards. He has the quickest time to throw (2.52 seconds) in the NFL while adding the lowest average depth of target, too, at just over five yards per throw, according to Next Gen Stats.
The formula for the Steelers has been all about yards after the catch and needling defenses that try to hit them with two-high shells.
If you ask Rodgers, the two-high shells are the exact reason the Steelers can not throw the ball down the field.
“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. “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.”
Against the Vikings, that formula worked impeccably well. In passes released in under 2.5 seconds, the Steelers went 13 of 16 for 174 yards and a touchdown.
It might not be like that every week, though. The Browns will play mostly single-high this week, the most out of anyone in the NFL.
After the game, Rodgers said he thinks the Steelers need to run the ball better to force teams out of those two-high shells to open up the explosive plays down the field.
Offensive coordinator Arthur Smith gave another analogy. Referencing the movie character ‘Uncle Rico,’ from Napoleon Dynamite he said that he does not want his offense just launching the ball down the field haplessly. At some points a season ago with Russell Wilson, that is all it felt like.
“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.”
Smith says that at times when they have downfield concepts drawn up, those routes can act as clear outs and ‘clear the paint’ for running backs like Jaylen Warren and Kenneth Gainwell, who have 63.9 percent of the team’s offensive touches this year.
Teams may not want to ‘Uncle Rico’ the ball and just launch it, but the Steelers do have to push it at some point. Still, quarterbacks coach Tom Arth says for now, they just need to ‘play the play.’
“You have to play the play,” Arth said. “If you’re chasing big plays, or chasing big opportunities down the field, and the looks aren’t there to do that, then you’re going to have bad plays, you’ll be behind the sticks. For us, it’s about taking what the defense gives us. We have our play calls and if they give us tight coverage and one-on-one opportunities, there will chances for us to go downfield. If they’re going to play softer zones and play it in front, then we have to continue to be patient and get it to guys who can do something with it. And you’ve seen that so far this year, where quick completions have turned into some big gains.”
The Steelers seeing two-high shells from most teams this year is an evolving trend in the NFL. More teams have gone away from single-high shells, opting to keep things in front of them instead and fit the run without the extra rolled down into the box.
In 2022, two-high shells were being played 45 percent of the time, but now, it is almost up to 50 percent league-wide, according to Sumer Sports. Pittsburgh is just seeing a trend the league is working with, and to counter it, they have started using their jumbo package with Spencer Anderson on the field.
The Vikings never shifted out of their two-high shells, so the Steelers did not have many chances to push the ball down the field. Yet, the Browns probably will given their DNA, and it will give the Steelers a different look than they have received all year.
If there is a week for the deep passing game to wake up, this would be the one.
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