The Pittsburgh Steelers threw the ball behind the line of scrimmage more often than any team in the NFL in 2025 — and, alone among the league's screen-heavy offenses, they were actually good at it. On 138 pass attempts that traveled backwards through the air, Pittsburgh averaged +0.023 EPA per play. The other 31 offenses combined for −0.203 EPA on the same play type. That gap is the whole story: the Steelers weren't schemed into losing yardage — they were using the RB screen as a designed replacement for interior runs, and it was working.

Table of Contents

• A behind-the-LOS rate unlike anything in the play-by-play era
• The only team that made it work
• The down-and-distance script
• Two backs, one role

A behind-the-LOS rate unlike anything in the play-by-play era

In 2025, 25.23% of Pittsburgh's non-sack dropbacks (138 of 547) went to a target behind the line of scrimmage. That's the highest rate in the NFL, ahead of Kansas City (24.61%), Miami (22.85%), and Tennessee (22.05%).

It's also a hard break from Pittsburgh's own history. Looking at every Steelers season back through 2006:

The prior high was 20.0% in 2019. Nothing in the last two decades of Steelers football approaches a quarter of all pass attempts landing short of the line. This wasn't drift; it was a change in what the offense fundamentally does.

The only team that made it work

Behind-the-LOS passes are, in the aggregate, bad plays. The 2025 league average across all 3,097 such attempts was −0.203 EPA per play. Every team leaning on the tactic in double digits paid for it — except one.

Among the ten teams with the most behind-LOS volume, Pittsburgh is the only one on the positive side of zero. Kansas City, second in volume, was −0.094. Tennessee — third — was −0.373. This is not a play type where you'd normally expect the leader in usage to also be the leader in efficiency, but Pittsburgh managed both.

Meanwhile the "regular" Steelers offense was ordinary. Their overall offensive EPA per play was −0.005 (below average), and their designed rush game came in at +0.006 EPA per rush — 12th in the league, tucked between Tampa Bay and Philadelphia. On raw handoffs the Steelers were league-average. On backwards passes, they were an outlier.

The down-and-distance script

The most interesting piece of Pittsburgh's 2025 offense is how the screen substituted for the run at exactly the down-and-distance spots where you'd normally hand it off.

First down. Pittsburgh called 209 first-down runs at −0.017 EPA per play. They also called 60 first-down behind-LOS passes — and those averaged +0.088 EPA per play. Same field position, same purpose (stay on schedule), and the "handoff in the air" beat the actual handoff by roughly a tenth of an EPA per snap.

Second down. The two play types converged: 130 runs at −0.094 EPA, 55 behind-LOS passes at −0.083 EPA. A wash.

Third down. This is where the tactic really paid: 22 third-down behind-LOS passes, averaging +0.256 EPA per play and converting a first down 36.4% of the time (8 of 22). Third-down runs, for comparison, were higher-variance and drawn from more favorable distances (44 attempts at +0.371 EPA — many of those short-yardage sneaks and power looks). The screen wasn't Pittsburgh's third-and-1 call; it was their third-and-medium answer, and it worked.

Add it up: on early downs, the RB screen was Pittsburgh's more efficient version of a handoff. On third down, it was a legitimate first-down mover.

Two backs, one role

The receiver list on those 138 plays tells you what this actually was. Of the 69 behind-LOS passes targeted at a running back:

Two backs, 67 of the 69 RB screens, and nearly identical EPA numbers (+0.132 and +0.127). Together those 69 RB-targeted plays produced +0.129 EPA per play — five and a half times the whole-team behind-LOS average.

Now put that next to their carries. Warren rushed 211 times at −0.002 EPA per attempt; Gainwell rushed 114 times at −0.006. Same two players, same offense, same defensive fronts. When they took the handoff from center, they were replacement-level. When the same play was schemed as a screen, they were among the most efficient touches in the NFL.