The Steelers' hiring of receivers coach Ike Hilliard last week projects as a combination of a coach that knows how to address younger receivers as well as improve the detail in their route running.
Hilliard presents an interesting career spanning from his twelve years as a player and eleven since as a coach. Here's a closer look at what he brings to the table to address a Steelers group whose three leading receivers are all 23 years old before the 2020 NFL Draft.
Hilliard's history playing in the NFL is a story of a player that went from being a collegiate star as the seventh overall pick in the 1997 NFL Draft to a receiver that never gained 1000 receiving yards in a single season but managed to stay in the league for twelve years.
He was never an NFL superstar but he became a technician as a route runner that contributed to multiple playoff teams and a 2000 Giants team that won the NFC before losing to the Ravens in the Super Bowl.
After bouncing around the NFL for several years, Hilliard stayed as the Redskins' coach for five seasons, finishing his tenure there working with rookie receiver Terry McLaurin, a third round selection out of Ohio State.
McLaurin was a known speedster with exceptional playmaking abilities that needed to hone his talents as a route runner to excel in the NFL. Speed is great, but there's plenty of players in the NFL that can run with the fastest players in the world. So McLaurin had to learn different ways to beat cornerbacks.
Watch this breakup by Darius Slay at the bottom of the formation. He plays press coverage on McLaurin, who runs a comeback route. His route isn't bad, but it doesn't sell Slay, an all-pro and three-time Pro Bowl cornerback, enough to back him off the intended destination:
McLaurin's comeback route included a strong step from his route, but no selling steps that backed off Slay from his eventual comeback pattern. As he developed in his rookie season, McLaurin began to find different ways to manipulate defensive backs than just with his pure speed.
In late November of 2019, Hilliard commented on McLaurin's improvement.
"There's some things we obviously have to work on together as we continue to work, hopefully for quite some time," Hilliard said to Kyle Stackpole of Redskins.com in an interview last year. "But he's done a good job of transitioning. Sometimes he's too fast in and out of breaks, and it doesn't necessarily get him in trouble because he's strong enough to fight through a lot of those situations and he's been able to win. But again, consistently enough for quite some time, he's done what's asked and what's necessary to win most of his 1-on-1 battles."
Hilliard worked with McLaurin to improve getting in and out of the breaks of his routes. After an explosive start to his season, McLaurin had a rough stretch of seven games when he only had one touchdown and never had more than 72 receiving yards.
Part of McLaurin's struggles came from working with quarterbacks Case Keenum and rookie Dwayne Haskins. But he still had to learn to better manipulate cornerbacks with different moves than just his speed.
He flashed his improvement in that department week 15 against the Eagles where his 130 receiving yards would be the most on the season. Most of those came on a deep in route where he used just a couple jab steps to the outside that held the backed off cornerback at bay long enough for him to present an open target to Haskins.
You can see him make his move and then turn on that elite speed to outrun the rest of the defense:
McLaurin was one of the second-most productive rookie receiver in 2019 with 919 yards and seven touchdowns on 58 receptions. But the Steelers also had a rookie receiver in Diontae Johnson from the third round that had a good year.
Johnson's average of 3.6 yards of separation per target was the most of all receivers in 2019, showing his explosiveness and sharp route running skills even as a rookie. Here he is winning on a comeback route against one of the best rookie cornerbacks of 2019, Byron Murphy. Notice how Johnson's pattern backs Murphy off just enough for Devlin Hodges' pass to the front pylon to succeed:
Despite the impressive NFL debut, Johnson has plenty of room to grow in his game. Details are important as a receiver in how you beat different talented cornerbacks, and Hilliard's job will be to help Johnson, JuJu Smith-Schuster and James Washington find the missing details in their respective skillsets to maximize their talents.
Here's another comeback pattern by Johnson just a week after his touchdown against Murphy that all-pro cornerback Tre'Davious White intercepts. Although the interception is on Hodges for throwing a poor pass far behind Johnson's route, you can see the lack of a strong jab step to threaten and back off White from the intended pattern:
If Hilliard can push the Steelers' young receivers to improve in the manner he helped McLaurin in just a year, it could give the recovering Ben Roethlisberger a stable of receivers that pose a wide variety of threats for defenses to consider.
As a former college superstar that went from being a top pick in his NFL draft class to being a mediocre receiver that never was a star in the NFL, but found a way to maintain a twelve-year career, Hilliard at 37 years old could have plenty to teach the Steelers' young receivers not just about routes and NFL play, but also about how to deal with the ups and downs of an NFL career.
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