Steelers Four Downs: Ben Roethlisberger is throwing into tight windows, but is it by choice?

1. Aggressive Ben?

“Aggressive” isn’t exactly an adjective thrown around about Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger these days. Not with the fastest time-to-throw in the NFL. Not with an intended air yards being among the shortest in the league downfield, either. But there is an NFL-collected passing metric termed “aggressiveness percentage” that Roethlisberger rates among the leaders in.

Among quarterbacks who have started each of the season’s first four games, Roethlisberger ranks fifth in aggressiveness percentage, which is defined as the rate of passing attempts a quarterback makes that are into tight coverage — defined for these purposes as there being a defender within 1 yard of the receiver at the time of completion or incompletion. Roethlisberger throws to receivers that tightly covered 17.1% of the time.

For comparison’s sake, MVP-level quarterbacks Patrick Mahomes (7.8%), Kyler Murray (9.7%) and Josh Allen (11.5%) throw that often into tight coverage far less frequently.

The question then becomes … is Roethlisberger truly being “aggressive,” or are his receivers just not able to get any more open?

“I know that I can play better football,” Ben Roethlisberger said. “I believe in myself. I know that no matter what is going on, I’m going to fight my butt off to get a win." https://t.co/xAzFHLCvBP

— Tribune-ReviewSports (@TribSports) October 6, 2021

2. Separate me

Building on Big Ben’s reported aggression, NFL’s Next Gen Stats also tracks “average separation” by pass catchers. It simply measures the distance (in yards) between an intended receiver and the nearest defender at the time of catch or incompletion.

This is a mixed bag for the Steelers. Notably, none of their tight ends have been targeted as many as 13 times (the minimum to qualify to be measured), so Pat Freiermuth’s ability to separate is not reported by the league’s statistical arm. But among the 112 qualifying wide receivers and tight ends tracked, only eight have less average separation from them and a defender at the time of a pass than Chase Claypool (2.3 yards). Just 16 have less than JuJu Smith-Schuster (2.5 yards)

James Washington (3.2 yards) and Diontae Johnson (3.3 yards) rate slightly better than the league average when it comes to separation.

Most scrimmage yards by a rookie this season:

363 — Najee Harris
295 — Ja’Marr Chase
237 — DeVonta Smith

(Submitted by @CAWafflez) pic.twitter.com/XtxCohuDEk

— StatMuse (@statmuse) October 4, 2021

3. Happier Harris

It’s in large part because of volume in touches that have been racked up late in defeats, but Najee Harris leads all NFL rookies in yards from scrimmage with 363. The split on where those yards are coming from is almost 50/50 – 185 rushing and 178 receiving.

Measuring Harris’ value is difficult because of the struggles of the Steelers’ offensive line. But PFF does have encouraging news about the first-round pick from Alabama: only three of 51 other qualifying running backs in the NFL grade better in PFF’s proprietary metric that is supposed to evaluate running backs best: “elusive rating.” It is defined as “measuring success and impact of a runner with the ball independently of the blocking.”

PFF also reports that 12 of the 52 qualifying running backs have more missed tackles forced than Harris’ 10.

It's time for the first win rate plot of the year!

Double-team rate at edge (x) by pass rush win rate at edge (y).

(ESPN / NFL Next Gen Stats) pic.twitter.com/o0Rkt2yh7p

— Seth Walder (@SethWalder) October 5, 2021

4. Watch Watt

Is T.J. Watt performing to the level of a player who got $80 million in guarantees? When it comes to purely rushing the passer, so far this season ESPN’s best measure of that says Watt resoundingly is worth every penny.

Watt leads the NFL in pass-rush win rate, an ESPN metric that shows how often a pass-rusher is able to beat his block within 2.5 seconds. Watt is doing so 38% of the time, a full four percentage points better than the league’s second-best at it, the Los Angeles Chargers’ Joey Bosa.

PFF’s more subjective grading rates Watt as the NFL’s seventh-best pass-rusher from the edge, one spot behind teammate Melvin Ingram III and two spots behind former Penn State star Micah Parsons.

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