Hmmm. Ben had the 3rd most pass attempts of his career last season, in just 15 games played, 561 pass attempts. Yeah, he was inactive for the last game against Cleveland but if he had played that game, going by his 37.4 pass attempts per game average he would have had 598 pass attempts. That would have put him at over 4,500 yards passing.
His career high was 608 attempts in 2014.
Bryant as a deep threat last season pales in comparison to the player he was as a rookie in 2014. You look at how Ben was dealing with underachieving WRs like Bryant and Eli Rogers, how McDonald was dealing with various nagging injuries and being behind with learning the offense, and now look at what Ben has in 2018.
JuJu with a year under his belt, a very productive rookie WR in Washington, another versatile rookie in Jaylin Samuels that can line up everywhere, and McDonald with a full offseason and training camp, preseason to get fully up to speed, comfortable, ready to make an impact. With all of this new talent, the yards per attempt is going to most likely significantly increase.
Last season Ben averaged 7.6 yards per pass attempt, but this season I could see that increase to the mid-8s, say 8.5 yards per attempt. Why? Because the talent at the skill positions has been fortified, has been improved. You look at how Eli Rogers averaged 8.3 yards per catch, then look at how JuJu averaged 15.8 yards per catch. You look at how Jesse James averaged 8.7 yards per catch, and then how McDonald in a small sample size admittedly, but still he averaged 13.4 yards per catch. Bryant averaged a whopping 12.1 yards per catch.
Now imagine that Rogers and James are further phased out and JuJu and McDonald combine for 120-130 catches this season, and their yards per catch totals continue to be stellar. Imagine James Washington comes in and is able to be like Wallace and Bryant as rookies and average over 18-19 yards per catch. Ben could throw for the same amount of pass attempts this year but the surrounding talent has been improved to the point where the passing game is going to be more explosive.
I can see Ben having a 5,000 yard season this year, not because he is going to throw the ball more than he did in 2014, but because the skill position players as a group, might be the most talented that he has ever had across the board. A 10 yard completion to Jesse James last season could very well be a 50 yard TD reception for Vance McDonald this season. They will be able to be creative with a player like Samuels and who knows maybe he will develop into a redzone nightmare for defenses.
One of my daydreams this past week was thinking about Ben being on the sideline and the Steelers bring back the Wildcat and they use it like this:
McDonald and JuJu are lined up inside as TEs, Washington and Brown are lined up outside. Samuels and Bell are lined up in the backfield, Pouncey can snap it to either. They (Jaylin/Bell) can tuck the ball and run with JuJu and McDonald able to use their outstanding blocking to help the O-line, or they can throw the ball. Samuels was 2 of 3 for 84 yards and a TD in college. Bell is 0 for 1 in the NFL but was 1 for 1 for 29 yards in college. I am not saying that either would be a real threat to pass the ball, but hell, they could even have one of them lined up at WR and bring in Brown at RB, who is 3 of 5 and has a TD pass. This is not something you would see all the time, like every game, but I just wish they would use the Wildcat more at times in the redzone, in 2 point attempts, etc. Do a little outside the box thinking. Anyway, just a daydream I had.
