Steelers wide receivers land below average ranking

Despite their success in 2020, the Pittsburgh Steelers wide receivers are sitting at 19th on the preseason rankings from Pro Football Focus, even featuring names such as JuJu Smith-Schuster and Chase Claypool.

Steelers wide receivers by the numbers

The pass attack last season was a big part of their success, as they topped the AFC North division despite a rushing yards per game effort ranked last.

The biggest knock on their receiving corps is definitely their dropped pass rate. PFF shows wideout Diontae Johnson dropped 14 passes out of 102 attempts. Not every pass is the same, but those drops can kill a drive. Tight end Eric Ebron is also looking to clean up his reception numbers, dropping nine times on 72 catchable passes.

Slot receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster averaged a low 9.0 yards per catch, and tested free agency in the offseason. James Washington also regressed a bit, with PFF grading him as a 69.3 player in 2019 down to a 63.8 player in 2020. If he can find improvement on the field, it will go a long way.

Going forward

A lot of the credit for their success goes to the defense, as they only managed the 15th-best passing yards per game as well. Still, good quarterback play requires receivers in which to throw. How does the 2021 receiving unit hold up with the addition of wide receiver Chase Claypool last year and tight end Pat Freiermuth this year?

Claypool finished his rookie season with nine touchdowns as a deep threat. Smith-Schuster had a dip in production compared to his career numbers but is still a veteran presence. They also drafted Freiermuth, a good route runner who they expect to contribute big numbers as a rookie.

Drops aren’t a great indicator of performance for the future. It’s extremely likely that they will improve those numbers. What’s already impressive is Johnson was open for those 102 passes.

And the Steelers are a team utilizing the jet motion offense, drawing play for their speedy receivers. Claypool scored off a jet sweep last season, and wideout Ray-Ray McCloud III will be a feature of it, this season.

It feels strange to say a team who won 12 games without a running attack is at the bottom of passing as well. But that’s where PFF has them ranked at the moment. In a division becoming extremely competitive with Baltimore and Cleveland, the Steelers wide receivers need to play above their ranks.

In the playoffs last year, the deepest pass completed by the Steelers was for 33 yards. Small sample size aside, that’s a glaring stat that indicates tougher defense clamped down on their talents. Veteran quarterback Ben Roethlisberger’s career passer rating of 94.0 shows that one way or another, they’ll find a way with the guys that they’ve got.