1. Not much from the WRs
Not even three weeks into the NFL season, there were five individual wide receivers who had more receptions than the entirety of the Steelers wide receiver corps through three games.
Two of those five — Puka Nacua and Jaxon Smith-Njigba — each have more receiving yards alone than the aggregate total for every wide receiver on the Steelers’ roster.
It’s been that kind of pedestrian statistical start to the season for the Steelers’ group of wide receivers.
During Sunday’s win, DK Metcalf had three catches for 32 yards and Calvin Austin III three catches for 34 yards. None of the other wide receivers on the team was targeted, and, in fact, the trio of Roman Wilson, Ben Skowronek and Scotty Miller combined for just 17 snaps played on offense.
For the season, the five Steelers wide receivers on their active roster have totaled 20 receptions for 290 yards. By comparison, the Los Angeles Rams’ Nacua has 333 receiving yards. The Seattle Seahawks’ Smith-Njigba has 323.
Nacua (29), the New Orleans Saints’ Chris Olvae (23), Smith-Njigba (22), the Cincinnati Bengals’ Ja’Marr Chase (21) and New York Jets’ Garrett Wilson (21) also had more receptions by themselves than all the Steelers’ wide receivers put together.
Metcalf (10) has half the Steelers’ WR receptions and almost half of those yards (135) while being targeted 17 times, and Austin has eight catches on 15 targets for 126 yards.
Miller has not been thrown to yet this season, Wilson’s only catch came during “garbage time” of the Steelers’ lone loss and Skowronek hasn’t been targeted since the first quarter of the first game.
That all said, Metcalf and Austin have two touchdowns each, and Skowronek’s reception also accounted for six points.
2. … or the tight ends, either
A similar phenomenon exists with the Steelers’ tight ends. Again, they have shown productivity in regards to producing points: Jonnu Smith has a touchdown catch and Darnell Washington a 2-point conversion catch as well as a pass interference call drawn in the end zone Sunday. The Steelers scored on the next play.
But Smith (65 receiving yards), Pat Freiermuth (also 65 receiving yards), Connor Heyward (6 receiving yards) and Washington (officially, zero receiving yards) have managed only an aggregate 136 receiving yards. Ten individual NFL tight ends have more than that.
Though Smith leads the Steelers with 12 receptions through three games, that’s fewer than the Dallas Cowboys’ Jake Ferguson had (13) during a single game Sunday in Chicago. Ferguson’s 27 catches for the season are far more than the 20 all the Steelers’ tight ends on the roster have combined (20, including seven from Freiermuth and one from Heyward).
3. Still quick and short
Aaron Rodgers continues to throw the ball quickly. And short.
Only two NFL quarterbacks in Week 3 had a shorter average time from snap to throw than Rodgers at 2.45 seconds (per NFL Next Gen Stats). That lowered Rodgers’ season average to 2.61 seconds. Only two passers are getting rid of the ball more quickly in 2025.
Hand-in-hand with quick passes are that they tend to be short. Rodgers’ average completed pass against the Patriots was targeted 2.0 yards past the line of scrimmage. Only one NFL QB attempted shorter passes, on average, over the weekend.
Nine of Rodgers’ 16 completed passes were caught at or behind the line of scrimmage. Just three were caught more than 8 yards downfield (of note: two of those were touchdowns).
For the season, Rodgers’ 2.9 average completed air yards is by far the lowest in the league. The second-lowest figure belongs to the Denver Broncos’ Bo Nix at 3.8.
4. Possession down problems
That the Patriots punted only once was, in part, a reflection on the Steelers’ remarkable ability to force turnovers Sunday. New England lost four fumbles, and the Steelers got one interception of Drake Maye.
But another function of the lack of work by Patriots punter Bryce Baringer was that their offense was so good on so-called “possession downs.” Of 13 occasions in which the Steelers forced a third down, the Patriots kept a drive alive 10 times: though they were 6 for 13 on third-down conversions, the Patriots converted 4 of 5 fourth-down tries.
The outing by the Steelers’ defense left them with the league’s fourth-worst season third-down opponent conversion rate (46.3%). Additionally, no team has allowed more opponent fourth-down conversions this season (six).
5. Snap decisions
Among the more notable aspects of the official player snap counts from Sunday was that Chuck Clark (76% of the Steelers’ 74 defensive snaps) and Jabrill Peppers (58%) easily earned more playing time each than the lone healthy Steelers player listed as a starter at safety, Juan Thornhill (39%).
Inside linebacker Cole Holcomb (50%) out-snapped the man he replaced in the starting lineup, Payton Wilson (47%).
Making his NFL debut, Derrick Harmon played 47% of the snaps. That was third most among Steelers defensive linemen behind Cameron Heyward (74%) and Keeanu Benton (65%) and ahead of fellow rookie Yahya Black (34%), veteran Daniel Ekuale (17%) and second-year pro Logan Lee (5%).
The only Steelers to play every defensive snap were inside linebacker Patrick Queen and defensive back Jalen Ramsey.
Chris Adamski is a TribLive reporter who has covered primarily the Pittsburgh Steelers since 2014 following two seasons on the Penn State football beat. A Western Pennsylvania native, he joined the Trib in 2012 after spending a decade covering Pittsburgh sports for other outlets. He can be reached at cadamski@triblive.com.
