The Pittsburgh Steelers have come a long way this season offensively after years of nightmarish performances. Gone are the days of consistently failing to hit the 30-point or 400-yard mark, something they have done multiple times this season.
New offensive coordinator Arthur Smith may have some flaws, but he has been so much better than his predecessor Matt Canada that he may as well be Kyle Shanahan. It has led to the Steelers climbing to real contender status this season.
Even with all the significant improvements the offense has made, Steelers fans have zeroed in on one particular play that Smith seems to love calling. The toss play (a running play in which the quarterback throws what is essentially a lateral to the back) has been a hot topic on social media all season, with posts calling for the play to be removed from the play. The posts cite ineffectiveness, the down and distance that it is used, and the running back that it is run with among other reasons for their frustration.
But is the play really that bad? And if so, should Smith really stop calling it entirely?
I watched every toss play the Steelers have run this season to find out. The answers to those questions, like many things in football, are... complicated.
How bad has the toss been, really?
Let's begin with the numbers that I was able to calculate when searching for every toss play the Steelers have run this season. By my count, the Steelers have run a true toss play 66 times this season as of the writing of this article. That may be way higher or lower of a number than fans were expecting, but either way, it's a pretty sizable total of their overall run plays. They have run the ball 455 times this season, so just under 15% of their total runs have been tosses.
What is more important though for this conversation is how efficient the play has been. If you were to ask fans, I would guess that many think they are averaging negative yards per attempt. More realistic people would likely say two or three yards per toss.
The real answer? A respectable 4.1 yards per carry. The full numbers are 66 attempts for 272 yards, with a long of 36. That doesn't sound right I imagine, but I am confident my math is right (I even used a calculator!).
With those numbers in mind, why do fans have such a hatred for this play? Well, I think the answer is pretty clear: how often it hasn't worked, even if there have been some big plays as well. The toss play by nature is a boom or bust play, as it is slow-developing and can be blown up for negative yardage more easily than traditional runs. Lead runner Najee Harris has had some of his best runs this season on tosses, but he also has several negative plays sprinkled in as well.
At the end of the day, the toss has actually been more efficient than the average running play for the Steelers this year. Does that mean Smith should call it as much as he does?
Ok, ok. It's not that bad. But should the toss be called so much?
This question is obviously far more subjective than the first one, but I think the answer is also pretty clear. With how often the play leads nowhere and the poor fit that Najee Harris is for the play, the play should at least be called a little less often.
More importantly, using it at a time when the defense is expecting an inside run could be especially lethal. They would also be wise to disguise the play a bit better. Something I noticed when watching all of their tosses was that there was seemingly always a receiver in motion towards the side the toss was going.
That by itself isn't enough for a defense to diagnose it pre-snap, but trying it with different kinds of motions and personnel could improve its down-to-down consistency. Using the more explosive Jaylen Warren rather than Najee Harris on those plays more often would also be an improvement. Overall, I think the toss just needs tinkered with and called less, not completely removed from the playbook.
I understand the dismay that Steelers fans have for the toss. I myself was expecting to crunch the numbers and suggest throwing it in the junk pile where plays like the jet sweep now reside. Instead, I just want Arthur Smith to look at the overall numbers and realize that the play could be called more sparingly and effectively. If those changes are made, I wouldn't be shocked if fan opinion were to change rather quickly.