Yards after catch (YAC) is a very important factor for a successful passing game. Today, I wanted to look at and provide data on Pittsburgh’s new OC Arthur Smith’s team results at previous coaching stops along with the Steelers and their NFL ranks for comparison.
Using data from Sports Info Solutions (SIS), I calculated YAC percentages (YAC/total yards), seeing which teams benefited from receivers creating yardage since 2019. Also, squads with more YAC tend to throw for shorter air yardage, so we’ll see the other side of the coin as well.
Here are Pittsburgh and Smith’s YAC percentages the last five seasons:
What jumps out right away is Pittsburgh having the top four percentages of the focused teams, also ranking top 35 out of the 160 qualifying NFL clubs.