Film Room with Zach Gentry: Why Screens to Him Work, Should’ve Hurdled Jesse Bates?

PITTSBURGH — An offensive play design sometimes has to do a lot of work to gain what might look like a minuscule advantage.

Teams will employ shifts, motions, run pick concepts, execute fakes, and do a number of other things all to try to get a defensive player a couple of feet out of position.

Sometimes, though, it all works far better than anyone was expecting. That happened on Sunday against the Cincinnati Bengals, when the Steelers called a screen pass to tight end Zach Gentry, who turned around to find … nobody.

The Steelers moved George Pickens from the right side of the formation to the left in at-snap motion and Mitch Trubisky turned and faked a handoff to Jaylen Warren. The offensive line began to run block and Gentry squared up to block Bengals end Sam Hubbard.

Then Gentry let Hubbard go and turned for the pass. When he caught it, he had right tackle Chuks Okorafor ahead of him as a lead blocker and the nearest defender was more than 10 yards away. Okorafor blocked him, Gentry caused the second defender to over-pursue, and suddenly, there was only one player left, Cincinnati All-Pro safety Jessie Bates III.

Gentry had another 10 whole yards to think about what to do about Bates. He could have hugged the right sideline and gone for a stiff-arm. He could have tried to get him to over-pursue the angle, as well, and then cut back to the middle. But there was a third option that he was also considering.

Gentry is 6-foot-8, 265 pounds. Bates is 6-foot-1, 201 pounds. Chances are, the Cincinnati safety was going to try to hit Gentry low to bring him down. What if the big man went high, and performed a Najee Harris-esque hurdle over Bates and then walked un-touched into the end zone?

Gentry considered it, and took two strides straight at Bates, but ultimately lost his nerve. Bates made the tackle and the Steelers had to settle for a still-impressive 32-yard gain.

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ICYMI@EldoEaglesFB alum Zach Gentry got his first reception of the season

Finished with 2 rec, 40 yds in their overtime win over the Bengals @KOB4 pic.twitter.com/jNPfYwCLIN

— Brandon Ortega (@Brandega) September 12, 2022

“I was, actually (thinking about hurdling Bates),” Gentry said Wednesday. “That’s why you watch my feet my squaring up on him. I kind of tried to run at him. I really almost did last second decided not to, but I really was going to.”

There are plenty of downsides to attempting a hurdle. You can look silly if the defender sees it coming. You can also hurt yourself. But looking back, Gentry wishes he had tried it.

“You always run the risk of that when you’re hurdling somebody,” he said. “I think if I would have stuck with it, I’d have been able to clear him.”

Across the locker room, Gentry’s tight end running mate Pat Freiermuth expressed some skepticism of that opinion. Either way, whatever Steelers offensive coordinator Matt Canada was selling, the Bengals ate it up on that play.

“We’ve called that play a couple times the last couple of years and I’ve caught it and I’ve definitely never had that much space,” Gentry said. “You know, usually there’s somebody out in front for the blocker to get or somebody have to kind of maneuver around so it’s kind of surprising when I catch it and see that much open field. It was nice.

Trubisky’s play-fake was top-notch and he also took the time to look to his left first before throwing to Gentry, making Bates move a few steps the wrong direction. Out in front, Okorafor got at least a piece of three players to clear the path. But for Gentry, who replaced Freiermuth in the team’s three-receiver, one tight end set on the play, it’s mostly about him being an unlikely target.

Entering Sunday, Gentry had played 542 offensive snaps. He ran a receiving route in just 202 of them. He was targeted for a reception on just 25 of them.

“I kind of get lost in the shuffle a little bit when when I’m the main guy usually doing pass pro and I leak out on the screen,” Gentry said.

Whatever the Steelers are dialing up for the second tight end is working. He’s now caught 22 of his career 27 targets for 211 yards, averaging nearly 10 yards per catch. That’s better than Freiermuth, who is the Steelers’ top receiving tight end threat and averages 8.8 yards per reception.

Gentry also now leads all Steelers receivers in average yards per separation from a receiver, at least for one week, more than tripling the next-best average according to NFL Next Gen Stats.

“That’s elite,” Gentry joked.