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Film Room: Steelers' Biggest Threat Against Raiders

Stopping Davante Adams? Easily the Pittsburgh Steelers biggest task in Week 16.

Derrick Bell

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The Pittsburgh Steelers host the Las Vegas Raiders on Christmas Eve in celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Immaculate Reception. That particular game featured some of the best receivers in NFL history with Lynn Swann, John Stallworth and Fred Biletnikoff. Now, fast forward to this week's showdown where Pittsburgh's defense will be tasked with slowing down arguably the best receiver in the league today, Davante Adamsm who's also on a Hall of Fame level trajectory, showing no signs of slowing down. But what is it about Adams that makes him so undeniably great?

Adams is the most detailed receiver in the league, every step and movement is well thought out and purposeful. In Week 5 against the Kansas City Chiefs, in primetime, Derek Carr was able to connect with Adams on a massive 48-yard touchdown late in the fourth quarter. The Chiefs were attempting to bracket Adams on third down to force Carr to go elsewhere, but unfortunately for them, Adams ran a go route from a condensed split which just so happens to be a very effective way to beat bracket coverage. 

How Adams got open, however, is a perfect encapsulation of everything that makes him so special.

If you want to be a truly dominant receiver at this level, you have to be proficient at the line of scrimmage, and the release is where it all starts for Adams. For this play, in particular, the cornerback is shading outside leverage because he has the safety inside waiting to bracket Adams. The corner tries to jam him at the line of scrimmage, but Adams ducks his inside shoulder and wins quickly inside before getting vertical. 

What makes Adams deadly in this phase of the game is that he always seems to have the answers to the test based on what the defender is giving him and where he needs to get to on the field.

The next phase is the stem and how Adams uses tempo to manipulate opposing defenders. 

As Adams begins to stack the cornerback, he raises up to give a skip-hesitation move which freezes the safety playing on the inside. Adams is able to explode while the safety is left relatively flat-footed and from there, it's a foot race. The phrase for receivers working vertically against defenders is "if he's even, he's leaving" and Derek Carr shows a clear understanding of this by taking a shot over the top to his number one receiver.

And finally, the spectacular finish. If there is one thing to really pinpoint down what Adams does better than any other receiver in the league, it's his unique ability to flash late hands at the catch point. This trait is a killer for defensive backs trailing Adams, as their only real tell for the ball arriving down the field is when a receiver raises his hands to start the catch process. However, Adams has this innate instinct to wait until the very last possible millisecond before plucking the ball out of the sky or tracking it over his shoulder, like he does in this play. 

When defensive backs are beat, they're taught to play through the hands, but with Adams, he doesn't leave defenders the opportunity to be disruptive at the catch point. 

Earlier in that same game against the Chiefs, Las Vegas elected to get aggressive and go for it on fourth and 1 around midfield. Typically "shot-play territory" is in between the 40s where you see NFL offenses seek out explosive plays down the field. Because of the down and distance, the Chiefs are selling out to stop the run while playing man coverage.

Once again, you see Adams's prowess against press coverage as he deploys his patented "skip release" which many other prominent receivers around the league have now attempted to emulate by incorporating it into their release package. It's subtle to the untrained eye, but when Adams skips off of the line, he's covering ground and shrinking the space between him and the cornerback who's playing a motor-mirror technique. 

With the corner stopping his feet, awaiting Adams's next move, he's able to quickly get inside of him and stack him vertically. 

Separation is king in the NFL and Adams has always had the ability to get open which is why he's always among the NFL's most targeted players. Any quarterback with common sense is going to lean towards trusting guys that give them more space to throw into. 

His 4.56 40 time didn't do him many favors throughout the NFL Draft process back in 2014 and was likely a reason that he fell to day two on draft weekend. It's worth noting that Adams does have good explosiveness, particularly in and out of his breaks, with sneaky-good play speed to match his skill set. Because of all of the bells and whistles that come along with his game, corners do tend to appear occasionally surprised that Adams is indeed fast enough to just blow right past them.

Lastly, Adams's impact on the field cannot be quantified just simply by taking a peak at the box score numbers. While the numbers are great in their own right, it's what he does to make life easier for others, not just the quarterback but for his other teammates as well. The New England Patriots found that out the hard way last week in their thrilling matchup which featured an ending that went viral on social media.

Bill Belichick has always had a reputation for being able to devise a defensive game plan centered around taking away the opposing team's best player. The thought process is fairly simple - devote extra attention to the star and force opposing teams to beat them with anyone else. There are consequences to that approach, however.

New England is playing man coverage with the free safety shading heavily towards Adams at the bottom of the screen. The gravity of having a superstar like Adams removes the safety from the middle of the field which means that everyone else gets a one-on-one matchup without any semblance of safety help over the top. On this particular play, Adams acts as a decoy, occupying two defenders via the fade route while Darren Waller torches his guy up the seam for an easy touchdown connection.

The plays selected for this particular film room were specifically chosen for a couple of reasons. If you noticed, it was focused on Adams's ability to win vertically and make splash plays down the field which isn't necessarily what he's best known for as a receiver. He's always had a reputation as this insanely refined route runner (which he is) who operated in lockstep with Aaron Rodgers and they would slice up defenses with choice routes, quick hitters and back shoulder fades that they made look effortless. 

While Adams can certainly still do all of those things and often does for the Raiders' offense, the way that he is being used this season is a bit different from years past. Raiders head coach Josh McDaniels has used him more in a field stretching role down the field, creating opportunities for both himself and his teammates. The results have been nothing short of fantastic. 

On throws more than 20+ yards down the field, Adams ranks third in receptions (12), and third in yards (465) while also leading the NFL in receiving touchdowns on throws of this distance with (8).

The Steelers have played man coverage at the third-highest rate league-wide but they're doing so without a true number-one corner on the roster that's capable of at least slowing down elite wideouts. Ja'Marr Chase, Amari Cooper, A.J. Brown and Tee Higgins are guys that fall under this category, and all of them went for 100+ receiving yards and a touchdown against the Steelers' defense this season. Adams will turn 30 years old on Saturday, but he's still every bit as dangerous as any of those younger guys listed above. 

Having a dominant wideout is a luxury that not every team has, but it makes every defensive coordinator have sleepless nights. This is not a new predicament that Pittsburgh finds itself in once again this week but Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin and defensive coordinator Teryl Austin will certainly have their hands full. 

Offsetting Adams's impact on the game has to be priority number one for this unit even in brutal, less-than-ideal weather conditions. 

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Derrick Bell
DERRICK BELL

Derrick Bell is a University of Louisville grad who's covered the Pittsburgh Steelers since 2019. Prior to AllSteelers, Derrick contributed to Steel City Blitz. 

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