Much has been made this offseason about the losses of Antonio Brown and Le’Veon Bell. How will the offense perform without them? Mainly, how will Ben Roethlisberger perform without them? Can he be the top quarterback we are used to seeing without his two stars?
We have a partial answer to this question, as Bell May have just officially left this offseason, but he didn’t take a single snap in the Black and Gold in 2018, though I digress. I decided to take a dive into Big Ben’s career pass distribution percentages to get a better understanding of how Brown impacted his performance, and how his performance affects his targets.
I went through every season since Ben’s rookie campaign, looked at the different receiving targets (Wide Receivers, Tight Ends, and Running Backs), and broke down the percentage of each positional group’s receptions for the team. I separated it by Wide Receiver 1, Wide Receiver 2, Wide Receiver 3, Tight Ends, and Running backs.
Putting running backs all together as opposed to individual allowed me to see in general how Ben’s growth has allowed him to use his check downs instead of forcing passes. And lumping tight ends together allowed for me to see the overall safety valve that Ben used the position for.
So, let’s get into it.
There is a belief that without Antonio Brown, JuJu Smith-Schuster simply cannot and will not perform the same as he did last season, and won’t put up comparable numbers. While realistically, 111 receptions and 1,426 yards will be difficult to replicate, it won’t be impossible.
read more
https://www.steelcityunderground.com...fense-perform/