Who was the Steelers most cost-effective receiver in 2022?

On the most recent episode of the Steelers Stat Geek podcast, I was tasked with answering the question who the most cost-effective receiver was on the Steelers in 2022. Initially asked to break it down by targets and receptions, I took it a little bit further by also looking at yardage and snaps played.

To determine the players cost effectiveness, what first must be determined is how much the player cost. There are several different ways to look at a player's salary. One method is to look at a player salary cap hit, although depending on where they are in their contract it may not be very representative of how much the player was paid that season. Another way is to look at the players base salary, but then a decent portion of the contract due to a signing bonus is neglected. For this reason, the best method in determining how much a player costs is by looking at their average per year (APY) over the life of their current contract. If a player is being paid $20 million over four seasons, then their APY is $5 million. It’s a simple and accurate way to look at salary.

So for the 2022 Pittsburgh Steelers, here are the APY of their wide receivers and tight ends:

Diontae Johnson: $18,335,000
Gunner Olszewski: $2,100,000
George Pickens: $1,688,047
Pat Freiermuth: $1,507,045
Connor Heyward: $953,806
Steven Sims: $895,000
Miles Boykin: $893,732
Chase Claypool: $778,428
Zach Gentry: $716,115

Two salaries of note should be what is recorded for Chase Claypool and Miles Boykin. For Claypool, I simply took his APY value of $1,654,159 and multiplied it by 8/17 as that is how many games he played with the Steelers. As for Miles Boykin, I did not use his salary strictly with the Steelers this year but with his APY for his entire rookie contract. If his numbers seem high, just imagine what that would look like if his $2.54 million base salary would have been used instead.

First up is how much each receiver cost the Steelers per target going from least expensive to most expensive.

Pat Freiermuth: $15,378
Chase Claypool: $15,569
George Pickens: $20,096
Zach Gentry: $31,135
Steven Sims: $38,913
Connor Heyward: $56,106
Diontae Johnson: $124,728
Miles Boykin: $297,911
Gunner Olszewski: $300,000

Obviously Diontae Johnson is one of the more expensive players based on his new contract. Miles Boykin gets a bit of a pass because he was used much more on special teams than on offense. As for Gunner Olszewski, the fact that he didn’t work out as the Steelers returner means his contributions on offense should be his primary focus.

Next up is the cost per reception:

Pat Freiermuth: $23,921
Chase Claypool: $24,326
George Pickens: $32,462
Zach Gentry: $37,670
Steven Sims: $63,929
Connor Heyward: $79,483
Diontae Johnson: $213,198
Gunner Olszewski: $420,000
Miles Boykin: $446,886

For the most part, these values follow a similar order as the targets with the exception of the last two names. The next category is cost per yard.

Pat Freiermuth: $2,059
George Pickens: $2,107
Chase Claypool: $2,503
Zach Gentry: $5,425
Connor Heyward: $6,317
Steven Sims: $8,606
Diontae Johnson: $20,788
Gunner Olszewski: $39,623
Miles Boykin: $81,248

For this one, the most thing that stands out is the movement of the rookie up the list. Both George Pickens and Connor Heyward moved up a spot compared to the first two categories.

The final category is cost per offensive snap.

Zach Gentry: $1,241
Chase Claypool: $1,685
George Pickens: $1,913
Pat Freiermuth: $2,028
Steven Sims: $3,151
Connor Heyward: $5,482
Miles Boykin: $6,771
Gunner Olszewski: $9,722
Diontae Johnson: $17,596

This category saw a big shakeup as it was obvious Zach Gentry was used a lot on offense as a blocker but not as a primary target in the passing game. For players like Miles Boykin, Gunner Schefsky, and even Connor Heyward, if special team snaps would have been included their cost would’ve come down significantly more.

So while it’s great to see how these numbers fare for the Steelers, it also goes to show a big difference between players on their rookie deals versus one on their second NFL contract. To give a standard of where players on the rookie deal might fall, the NFL’s leading receiver in 2022, Justin Jefferson, is also a player on his rookie deal. Here are his numbers for comparison sake:

Justin Jefferson
APY: $3,280,702
Cost per target: $17,830
Cost per reception: $25,630
Cost per yard: $1,814
Cost per snap: $3,040

Being a first-round draft pick, Jefferson still costs more than Pat Freirmuth in both targets and receptions and costs more per snap than both Pickens and Freiermuth. But in terms of yardage, Jefferson was more cost-effective than any of the Steelers receivers.

Another big question comes down to Diontae Johnson and how cost-effective he is with his deal compared to other receivers. At first I looked at the top five wide receivers in terms of salary for 2022, but three of those five players, DeAndre Hopkins and Cooper Kupp, only appeared in nine games this season which has their numbers heavily skewed. The sixth player when it comes to cost, Stefon Diggs, also finished in the top five in the NFL in receptions along with Jefferson and the other three players with the top salaries.

So here are four of the top wide receivers in the NFL and their values for each category:

Tyreek Hill
APY: $30,000,000
Cost per target: $176,471
Cost per reception: $252,101
Cost per yard: $17,544
Cost per snap: $37,500

Davante Adams
APY: $28,000,000
Cost per target: $155,556
Cost per reception: $280,000
Cost per yard: $18,470
Cost per snap: $26,820

A.J. Brown
APY: $25,000,000
Cost per target: $172,414
Cost per reception: $284,091
Cost per yard: $16,711
Cost per snap: $24,900

Stefon Diggs
APY: $24,000,000
Cost per target: $155,844
Cost per reception: $222,222
Cost per yard: $16,795
Cost per snap: $28,708

In looking at these receivers compared to Diontae Johnson, he is more cost-effective than any of them in both targets, receptions, and snaps. The only category in which Johnson cost more than all four of these players is when looking at his cost effectiveness in terms of yards.

So there are the numbers for the Pittsburgh Steelers receivers and their cost effectiveness from 2022 as well as some other players in the NFL for reference sake. How do you think the Steelers looked? Make sure to give your thoughts in the comments below.

For more on this subject, check out the most recent episode of the Steelers Stat Geek podcast below: