The more I researched the problem, the worse it got. Pouring over the numbers on the Pittsburgh Steelers’ YAC last season was like battling quicksand. Slowly sinking to the bottom. The eye test alone made it clear Pittsburgh didn’t have enough “run-after” last season, not enough yards after the catch, but quantifying things truly puts into perspective how bad Pittsburgh was.
We can look at it marco and micro. Macro as in team YAC, micro as in individual play. Big-picture, the Steelers’ numbers were abysmal. They had 1463 total yards of YAC last season, 29th in football. But split that into relative numbers, YAC per completion (a more accurate number), and Pittsburgh ranked dead last in YAC per catch in 2022, a paltry 4.