DK Metcalf — Week 1: Ten Targets, Six Deep, None of the Six Caught
2026 NFL Season · Half-PPR Scoring · Monday, Sep 14
Metcalf was thrown to ten times Sunday, the most of any Steeler, and caught four for forty yards, none longer than fourteen. The other six were deep — twenty-one to thirty-seven yards in the air — and all six fell incomplete, four of them on third down and one on fourth and three at the Atlanta forty-five that handed the Falcons the ball. Two hundred four air yards, forty gained, in a 20–13 win.
When DK Metcalf's week moves the numbers, you'll know — every episode, in one weekly email.
The full episode, in writing
Fourth and three at the Atlanta 45, four 46 left in the third quarter, Pittsburgh up 13 to seven. Aaron Rodgers went deep right for DK Metcalf, 23 yards in the air, incomplete, C.J. Henderson on the play. Turnover on downs, −2.8 expected points added — expected points added is what a play was worth given down, distance and field position — and Atlanta took it from the 45 to a 51-yard field goal that made it a three-point game. The snap before it, third and three, had been a deep incompletion to Roman Wilson. Pittsburgh threw twice for the first down it needed and neither came down.
That was the fifth of six deep throws to Metcalf, and the pattern holds across all six: 31 yards in the air on third and six in the first quarter, incomplete; 26 on first and 10 from the Atlanta 26 in the second, incomplete; 31 on third and 20 from the Pittsburgh four, incomplete, with an offensive pass interference on Metcalf declined; 37 on third and six in the third, incomplete, A.J. Terrell injured on the play and noted as returning later; the fourth-down throw; and 21 on third and three with 18 seconds left in the third, incomplete. Six deep targets, a hundred 69 air yards, zero catches. The four he caught were short: six, nine, 11 14, the last one second and 10 from the Pittsburgh eight with three 36 left, pushed out at the 22, the first down that got the game's last real drive moving. Four catches, 40 yards, no touchdowns, −5.4 on the 10 targets. A 19-yard catch on third and five late in the half was taken away by his own pass-interference penalty.
10 targets is a quarter of Rodgers's 40 throws and four more than anyone else on the team; Jaylen Warren and Wilson had six each. 204 of Rodgers's 407 air yards went to Metcalf. He was thrown to on four third downs and caught none of them; Pittsburgh converted three of 12, and the three went to Pat Freiermuth, Wilson and Darnell Washington.
The June preview's read on Metcalf was a 20-second-best rate at a 30-seventh-best price — alpha-receiver volume in a new offense, priced below what the per-game production said. Sunday the volume half was there to the letter, 10 targets, a quarter of the throws. The production half was 40 yards, and the reason is six deep balls that did not connect. One afternoon does not say whether they will; it does say the offense kept throwing them. Pittsburgh is at the Patriots on Sunday the twentieth. The number is how many of the deep ones land.
_Data via nflverse._
When DK Metcalf's week moves the numbers, you'll know — every episode, in one weekly email.
Keep going