Pittsburgh Steelers stat predictions for the 2020 NFL season

The Pittsburgh Steelers are about to kick off the 2020 season. Here are my stat predictions for some of their biggest players heading into the year.

Every year, I attempt a ballpark prediction for stats of prominent Steelers players. While last year’s predictions were thrown through a loop after Ben Roethlisberger suffered a sesaon-ending elbow injury, I hope to be much more accurate this time around.

Most analysts would agree that Pittsburgh has an improved offense this year, and it’s almost a given that they will take a massive step up from an offense that ranked just 30th in the league last season.

Estimating how many snaps, attempts, targets, or opportunities players may see this season, I’ve attempted to predict the season stats of some of your favorite Pittsburgh Steelers players in 2020. Here’s what I came up with:

Ben Roethlisberger

4,370 passing yards, 27 TD, 12 INT, 7.6 yards per attempt

Ben Roethlisberger may not lead the league in passing yards in 2018, but that doesn’t mean the Steelers are going to be running the ball every play. While Randy Fichtner may want to keep his star quarterback on a pitch count early in the season, he will no doubt loosen the reigns as the year goes on.

The Steelers have an aging offensive line and they recently shuffled a few players around. If they struggle to establish the run this year, Ben could be slinging the ball more than we anticipated.

I have Roethlisberger throwing for 27 touchdowns this year in addition to 12 interceptions. We are accustomed to the Big plays with Ben, but he’s certainly not immune to giving the ball away either. In addition, 7.6 yards per attempt this year seems reasonable – given his group of receivers.

A season like this would look similar to the one he had when he was a Pro Bowler in 2017. While these numbers aren’t mindblowing, making an offensive leap like this would be enough to make the Steelers a playoff team at the very least.