Get Chase Claypool involved early and often
There is nearly a direct correlation between the success of Pittsburgh’s offense and how involved wide receiver Chase Claypool is in any given game. In fact, in the three 30+ point games, the Steelers have managed in 2020, Claypool has earned a combined 25 targets and a whopping 7 touchdowns. Typically, good things are going to happen when you look his early and often.
Lately, however, Claypool has been underutilized. In Pittsburgh’s four-game stretch when they failed to score more than 19 points in a single game, Claypool averaged just over 6.5 targets per contest. While Big Ben has had a difficult time accurately getting the ball down the field to his biggest and most athletic receiver, Claypool has made plenty of plays down the sidelines this year. When he’s not coming down with the football, he’s typically drawing a pass interference call on smaller, less athletic defensive backs.
To bring back that early offense success we saw in the first half of the season, Pittsburgh must be willing to get Chase Claypool more involved in the offense throughout the game, and targeting him down the field will help open everything else up for this offense in the playoffs.