Eckert’s Examinations: WR Ben Skowronek 2022 Receiving Study

Today I wanted to continue the series, looking at NFL WR receiving stats. The Pittsburgh Steelers added WR Ben Skowronek to the practice squad, drafted by the Los Angeles Rams, where he spent the last three seasons.

The stats in this study are from the 2022 season when Skowronek played most. We’ll focus on him and include qualifying Steelers for comparison. The goal is to see how Skowronek stacked up against his NFL peers, and what that could mean for 2024.

Let’s dive in, starting with on target catch percentage (total receptions/number of catchable targets) which highlights the quality of targets and connectivity, along with drop percentage (drops/catchable targets) to see who made the most of their expected catch situations:

Here, Skowronek lands above the mean in both data points. A 90.0 on target catch rate ranks 45th out of the 85 qualifying WRs (slightly above-average), while a 2.2 drop rate was comfortably above the mean and tied for 19th. This points to reliable hands on his targets in comparison to his peers in 2022.

Next let’s look at yards per route run (YPRR=total receiving yards/number of routes run excluding RPO handoffs) and yards per target (YPT=receiving yards per pass attempt in which the receiver is targeted, including incompletions) to get an idea of how the players were utilized:

Quite a different story here. Skowronek had just 1.0 yards per route run, tying for 82nd. That fourth-least among qualifier  and sheds important context to his above average catch rates in the previous view. 6.2 yards per target landed a bit better but still a low 79th ranking.

Let’s further examine their usage with average depth of target (ADOT=average distance downfield that the targeted throws traveled, excluding spikes and throwaways) and average depth of completion (ADOC) to zero in on opportunities more in the receiver’s control:

A 7.5 average depth of target ranked 72nd, and 5.7 average depth of catch tied for 74th, each well below-average. At least in 2022, when Skowronek received the most playing time to date, was a short area yet reliable target.

Continuing with more important factors, here are first down percentages (percentage of receptions where the receiver achieved a first down) along with broken/missed tackles per reception (BMT), a fun and telling data point. The goal here is to see who provided moving the chains plays and which players also showed the ability to make guys miss:

Considering the previous information, faring well in this view would be preferable for Skowronek. Instead, his 5.1 broken/missed tackles per reception tied for 68th, and a particularly poor 41.0 first down rate that ranked 83rd. The latter was third-worst that season, meaning he wasn’t a chain mover and lacked creation after the catch that many others provided (including Pittsburgh WRs).

I also wanted to provide a total value view using points earned per route (The total of a player’s EPA responsibility on routes run using the total points system that distributes credit among all players on the field for a given play. Totals are scaled up to map to the average points scored or allowed on a team level, with the player’s snap count determining how much to adjust.

For receivers, this includes accounting for offensive line play, off-target passes, dropped passes, and broken tackles. Values are modulated using a quality-of-competition multiplier based on each opponent’s previous year of performance) and EPA per target (the total change in the offense’s expected points that came on passes thrown to the player):

Below the mean in both data points once again, which makes sense after everything we’ve learned. His 0.005 points earned per route ranked 79th, and a -0.03 EPA per target landed a bit better at 73rd. Other than reliable hands, Skowronek was well below-average in all other aspects of the study.

He does provide versatility that included wide, slot, inline TE, along with FB/RB alignments in 2022, which OC Arthur Smith values. If Skowronek earns playing time in Pittsburgh, and things transpire similarly, we get a sense of the type of contributions that could be in store for the practice squad addition.

Not a needle mover, hence his services being available, but a nice versatile player that helps with the depth and options at the position for Pittsburgh’s offense. Plus, special teams matter, and Skowronek has chops there that would likely be a welcomed upgrade to a unit that was lackluster this preseason.

To close, here is a table of all the ranks: