Unless the weather changes the current plan, we should get a good look at the Pittsburgh Steelers potential Week 1 starting defense Sunday night in Nashville when the team plays their third preseason game of 2019 against the Tennessee Titans. That starting Steelers defensive unit Sunday night against the Titans might just include rookie inside linebacker Devin Bush and assuming that’s the case, it should be the first time that we get see him playing behind a defensive front five of Cameron Heyward, Stephon Tuitt, Javon Hargrave, Bud Dupree and T.J. Watt.
Earlier this week, Watt spoke to Jim Rome on his radio show about the Steelers 2019 defense and the team’s first-round draft pick this year.
“I think compared to last year, this year’s defense is just overall a lot more faster,” Watt told Rome. “We’re a lot quicker and like I said, football is being a lot more of a speed game. Guys are getting a little bit smaller at positions and we got a new asset obviously in Devin Bush with the tenth overall pick this past year and he’s been able to fly around and clean up a lot of the missed tackles. I think you look back to last year we had a lot of miss tackles as a unit and whenever you get guys in the back end and at the second level that can fly around and clean up those missed tackles, you’re going to be a lot better of a defense.’
The Steelers defense did indeed miss way too many tackles not only last season, but not nearly has many than the previous three or so seasons. Regardless, there isn’t a defense in the NFL that doesn’t hope to improve over last year in the missed tackles department. Bush will hopefully help the Steelers in that area.
As for Watt and the rest of the Steelers starters playing Sunday night, the former first-round draft pick out of Wisconsin let Rome know a few days ago that he’s looking forward to seeing more preseason action against the Titans.
“To be honest with you, I look forward to them,” Watt said of preseason games. “I look forward to getting out there and having an opportunity to go up against a different team. I know it’s different for everybody. Certain people have joint practices. We didn’t have one in Pittsburgh this year so to be able to go up against somebody with a different colored jersey on is a great opportunity for me. And obviously last year I wasn’t able to do any preseason so this year I’m excited to be able to play.”
With just a few more hours remaining until the Steelers Sunday night game against the Titans is scheduled to get underway, cornerback Joe Haden appears to be only defensive starter that won’t play and that’s due to an ankle injury he’s been attempting to overcome for the last several weeks. We could potentially see a few more starters on both sides of the football be scratched later this evening, however, as the current weather forecast calls for a lot of rain Sunday night in Nashville.
