Increased Pass Targets for Le'Veon Bell Will Keep Steelers out of Offensive Rut

The Pittsburgh Steelers offense has been effective this season, averaging a sixth-best 396.5 yards per game. However, it has also been predictable. 

The primary focus of the offense has been Ben Roethlisberger throwing passes to receiver Antonio Brown and running the ball with back Le'Veon Bell. Brown has been targeted a team-high 61 times so far this season; behind him is Markus Wheaton, with 40 targets. Bell has rushed 105 times, while LeGarrette Blount has carried the ball just 37 times.

Bell has only one touchdown this year, while Brown is tied with Blount for most touchdowns, with two. Brown's 41 receptions trump any other teammate by 13. If this pattern continues, opposing defenses will be able to effectively shut the Steelers down simply by shutting down Bell in the run game and Brown in the passing game.

The Steelers need to get more creative, but that's difficult to do. Wheaton's big breakout has yet to come to fruition, with him catching only 60 percent of the passes thrown to him and bringing down just four receptions on 12 targets in Week 6 against the Cleveland Browns.

Player	Tgts.	Rec.	Rec.%	Yds.	YPR	TD	YAC	1st D.
A. Brown	61	41	67.2%	629	15.3	5	193	30
Wheaton	40	24	60.0%	277	11.5	0	70	12
Miller	33	26	78.8%	262	10.1	1	130	15
Bell	35	28	80.0%	251	9.0	0	235	13
J. Brown	21	12	57.1%	94	7.8	0	31	4

Tight end Heath Miller is ever-present, and he does have 26 catches for 262 yards and a score, but his usage is limited. While reliable, Miller is certainly not an explosive playmaker. He can move the chains, earn first downs and score in the red zone, but he's not going to do much after the catch.

To shake themselves out of a rut on offense, the Steelers need to do one simple thing: throw the ball to Bell more often.

It's not as though Bell is not getting attention from Roethlisberger. He has 28 catches on 35 targets for 251 yards so far. However, considering Bell's skill set and the fact that he is on the field for 78 percent of the Steelers' total offensive snaps, according to Pro Football Focus (subscription required), it seems like he could get even more targets.

Further, of Bell's 336 snaps played so far this year, the majority have been in the passing game—188. And of those 188 snaps, he's ran a route on 178 of them, the second-highest number of routes run by a running back in the NFL this season. Because of this, it makes no sense that he's been targeted only 35 times. 

Bell's appeal as a receiver is twofold. One is his reliability. He's caught 80 percent of the passes thrown to him thus far, and he's earned 13 first downs via catching the ball. The other is how well his talent as a running back can translate to the receiving game.

Of running backs with 40 or more carries this year, Bell ranks 11th in Pro Football Focus' Elusive Rating, which, as they word it, is a metric that measures "a runner's success beyond the point of being helped by his blockers." He's forced 15 missed tackles as a running back and 11 as a receiver—the second most by any receiving back this season.

Bell also has a high Breakaway Percentage of 37.1, meaning that Bell has earned 37.1 percent of his 542 rushing yards on carries that have gone 15 yards or longer. He has six such carries, and they have earned him a total of 201 yards this season.

Bell's reliable hands paired with his ability to break tackles, create yards for himself beyond the point of blocking and gain lots of yards on a simple handoff. Those factors all seem to scream "high volume receiver." There's no reason to believe he won't have success if targeted more often.

Gregory Shamus/Getty Images

It will also help the Steelers' play-action passing game. It's not just about faking the handoff to Bell and then Roethlisberger targeting him on a screen play. It can also mean Bell and Blount on the field at the same time, with Blount getting the fake and Bell running a route to the flat. It can mean Bell on the outside with a faked end-around to Brown. Suddenly, a new world of passing breaks open when Bell is used as a receiver more often.

The Steelers are running out of options in the passing game. Brown has been very successful this year because he's fast and elusive and runs precise routes, but he's not unstoppable. Teams are quickly learning to allow Brown all the yards he wants between the 20s but are keeping him bottled up when the Steelers reach scoring position.

The Steelers have an average of 3.2 red-zone scoring attempts per game this year, but they rank 31st in the league at scoring touchdowns in the red zone, doing so only 36.84 percent of the time. At the same time, of Bell's 16 red-zone touches this season, only four have been pass targets.

Player	RZ Runs	RZ Tgts.
A. Brown	1	11
J. Brown	0	7
Miller	0	6
Wheaton	0	6
Bell	12	4
Blount	5	2
Archer	0	1
Moore	0	1
Palmer	0	1
Roethlisberger	4	0

Instead, Brown is getting the most red-zone love from Roethlisberger, with 11 targets. That's followed by Justin Brown with seven, Miller with six and the unreliable Wheaton with six. Considering what Bell has accomplished in the open field as a runner and receiver this year, giving him more red-zone passing targets might help cure what ails the Steelers in the scoring department.

For such a dynamic receiver who is constantly on the field, four red-zone passing targets for Bell seems low, almost ridiculously so. He's a weapon who is not being used to his full potential. Suddenly, his value as a receiver dips because of the down-and-distance, when it looks like his value should skyrocket in those situations.

Getting Bell more involved in the passing game won't solve every problem the offense has. It won't suddenly produce a breakthrough with Wheaton that makes him a convincing No. 2 receiver or give Miller his speed back.

But it does add another wrinkle to an offense that produces yards prodigiously but not points. It reduces the predictability while maximizing the strengths of one of the Steelers' best players on offense. More passing targets for Bell should be the Steelers' first step to getting more points out of the offense.