A new chapter for the Pittsburgh Steelers is here. Continuing to learn more about the coaching staff, today I’ll provide explosive play stats resumes for HC Mike McCarthy (and offensive play caller) along with DC Patrick Graham. The importance of explosive plays (20-plus yards) is that it’s proven to lead to more scoring drives, or limit points on defense.
First up is a visual of McCarthy’s explosive play results for his head coaching career, along with Pittsburgh for comparison:
A tot of up and down results. Starting with McCarthy’s 13 years in Green Bay, eight of those teams were above the NFL mean (63.5 explosive plays) in the span. More hit/miss results early on as a rookie coach in 2006, along with 2008 when QB Aaron Rodgers became a starter, and 2010.
The latter featured a Green Bay Super Bowl win, besting the team McCarthy now coaches. The NFL has become more of a passing league, which should be taken into account across McCarthy’s substantial coaching resume.
The worst year in Green Bay by far was 2017, when they dealt with injuries at quarterback. Important context with the majority of 20-plus plays coming through the air. The seasons in which McCarthy teams posted above average marks were 2007, 2009, 2011, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2018. 2011 tied for the best result on the chart with the 2010 Steelers at 79 explosive plays.
There were also some mixed results in Dallas. The below average seasons corresponded with injuries at quarterback in 2020 and 2024. When QB Dak Prescott played the majority of snaps, the Cowboys were consistently an explosive offense for three straight years under McCarthy (2021-23). So outside of his early coaching days and seasons with QB injuries, McCarthy has headed nice overall explosive play results in his 18 years as a head coach.
We can see why this was attractive to Pittsburgh, which has been a below average explosive play offense in six of the last seven seasons. Yes, 2019 was an injury riddled year at quarterback, expectedly with the worst number of explosive plays (46) on the visual above.
But the latter years of retired Steelers QB Ben Roethlisberger. And since then, things have been painful in an explosive play regard overall. Hopefully McCarthy brings his stronger recent results with him.
Now for a similar view of explosive plays allowed (lower numbers are best) for DC Patrick Graham. Included are each team he held the same coaching position, and Pittsburgh’s results as well:
Of the seven seasons Graham has been a defensive coordinator, five of those teams were above the NFL mean at limiting explosive plays, compared to Pittsburgh accomplishing this four times.
Graham’s first season as a defensive coordinator was with the Dolphins, who allowed 77 explosive plays, the worst result on the chart. His Giants defenses were vastly better at limiting explosive plays, well above the NFL mean in this time frame. Year one with Las Vegas wasn’t ideal with 70 explosive plays allowed, but turned it around his last three seasons as their DC.
This of course includes last year, when the Raiders allowed just 46 explosive plays, the best mark of the visual. In fact, this tied for the eight-best mark across the NFL since 2019 (out of 224 qualifying defenses). His 2021 Giants also tied for 12th with 47 explosive plays allowed. Having two defenses in the top 15 of explosive plays allowed is quite impressive.
The 2019 season was the only time in this span when Pittsburgh’s defense could make the same claim. That unit limited the opposition to 49 explosive plays, tying for 18th in the same parameters. While 2020 was still above the mean, it started an obvious decline the following three seasons (2021-23). Not what you want to see from a team that has been built around defense.
Pittsburgh then returned to an above average unit the last two years, thankfully. This, along with Graham’s recent success and a couple seasons with top end results highlight the good news.
There were two below-the-mean years, each in first seasons with the Dolphins and Raiders. Here’s to hoping that isn’t the case in Pittsburgh, proving Graham can hit the ground running in this regard like he did with New York.
What ultimately matters is how things look moving forward. Hopefully the Mike McCarthy and Patrick Graham pairing can lead to positive explosive play results. Explosives certainly impact games greatly, and it could go a long way in changing the tide for the Pittsburgh Steelers.