The Pittsburgh Steelers lack of communication on the defensive side of the football has been a big issue the last couple of seasons and the hope is that issue will finally be fixed in 2018 thanks to the addition of a few very vocal free agent signings in inside linebacker Jon Bostic and safety Morgan Burnett and the addition of a new secondary coach in Tom Bradley.
Bostic, who spent last season as a starter with the Indianapolis Colts, has been very vocal about just how vocal he really is on defense since signing with the Steelers back in March. On Friday, Bostic reiterated once again how he believes he can help solve the communication issues the Steelers defense has had the last several seasons.
“I think I’m going to help it because that’s something I don’t really mess around with,” Bostic told steelers.com. “At the end of the day, my buttons get pushed a little bit when guys aren’t communicating. I’d rather over communicate than guys not saying anything. At the end of the day, if one guy is out there and he’s loud and wrong, we can all be loud and wrong and if we’re all loud and wrong together, we’re alright. So, by the end of the day, it’s about taking that stuff that we learned in the meetings, that we practiced over and over in walkthroughs and in practice over to the game. We got to make sure that stuff carries over.”
Since his arrival back in March, Bostic, who was originally drafted in the second-round of the 2013 NFL Draft out of Florida by the Chicago Bears, has been running behind fellow inside linebacker Tyler Matakevich and it will be interesting to see if that pecking order remains the same until the start of the regular season. Judging by what Steelers general manager Kevin Colbert has said all offseason, it’s Matakevich’s job to lose and thus Bostic has to wrestle it away from the Temple product the next few weeks.
When you review Bostic’s tape from last season, you can see several instances of him pointing at and communication with other members of the Colts defense pre-snap and that should be expected as he was the player in charge of relaying the calls with him wearing the green dot on his helmet. We’ll now have to wait and see if he can communicate clearly enough to the Steelers through his play in practice and the preseason that he deserves to be the starter alongside Vince Williams this season.
