One of the more exciting things to watch in Pittsburgh over the last three seasons has been the growth and development of a young, dynamic receiving corps. The Steelers have hit home runs with Mike Wallace, Antonio Brown and Emmanuel Sanders in the mid-late rounds of the NFL draft. With Hines Ward aging and Santonio Holmes trade, the team smartly and very cost effectively turned what should have been a weakness into perhaps their greatest positional strength.
While Wallace had a breakout year in 2010, we didnt’ see the true development of Brown until this summer. Brown worked out hard during the offseason and was a completely different receiver when preseason rolled around. Roethlisberger and Brown seemed to have developed great chemistry and it definitely seems like Roethlisberger is looking his way more often. In fact, Big Ben has been distributing the ball with a lot more variance in 2011.
Thanks to Advanced NFL Stats, I was able to easily pull together the number of targets that each receiver has had in 2010 and 2011. The jump in Brown’s targets is staggering! Hit the jump for the graphs and a few more thoughts on Big Ben’s spreading of the wealth…
| 2010 | ||
| Player | Targets | Percent of Targets |
| Mike Wallace | 99 | 21.2% |
| Hines Ward | 93 | 19.9% |
| Heath Miller | 67 | 14.3% |
| Emmanuel Sanders | 50 | 10.7% |
| Antwaan Randle-El | 39 | 8.3% |
| Antonio Brown | 19 | 4.1% |
| Matt Speath | 18 | 3.8% |
| David Johnson | 2 | 0.4% |
| Arnaz Battle | 2 | 0.4% |
| 2011 | ||
| Player | Targets | Percent of Targets |
| Mike Wallace | 51 | 21.8% |
| Antonio Brown | 48 | 20.5% |
| Hines Ward | 39 | 16.7% |
| Heath Miller | 31 | 13.2% |
| Emmanuel Sanders | 27 | 11.5% |
| Jerricho Cotchery | 3 | 1.3% |
| Weslye Saunders | 3 | 1.3% |
| Arnaz Battle | 1 | 0.4% |
-B- Antonio Brown was targeted 19 times during the entire 2010 season. He already has 48 targets in 2011. That’s remarkable. He’s also being targeted more than Ward.
-B- Speaking of Hines, his targets haven’t dropped off too much so far in 2011. At times, it seems like the decrease has been a lot more than 3 percent. Five receivers are getting
-B- There is a solid group of five regulars that Roethlisberger is confident throwing the ball to in 2011.
-B- Lots of Steelers fans are always clamoring for Ben to throw more to Heath Miller. He’s getting close to the same number of looks that he had last year. That’s good to see, considering that the Steelers are now 4 receivers deep instead of 3.
-B- It also seems like Emmanuel Sanders’ targets have been down in 2011, but that’s not the case. I’m curious to watch how that number varies the rest of the way. I think Brown’s emergence has caused a lot of people to forget about Sanders, who may still be a better pure receiver at this point in their careers.
