Coming off of a dominant performance in the Pro Football Hall of Fame Game against the Dallas Cowboys, Pittsburgh Steelers’ second-year outside linebacker Alex Highsmith isn’t getting too caught up in the hype that surrounds him ahead of the 2021 season.
Instead, the young linebacker is focusing on what he can control: Stacking good days at training camp and in the preseason, making sure he’s playing his best football come the start of the 2021 regular season.
Highsmith burst onto the scene Thursday night, ripping off his go-to inside spin move in the red zone, sacking Garrett Gilbert to help force the Cowboys to settle for a field goal. Highsmith flashed the inside spin move often down the stretch in 2020, showing how quickly he could pull it off against veteran left tackle Ty Nsekhe in the first quarter.
Prior to Thursday’s sack and overall performance that saw him in the backfield often against the Cowboys, the young linebacker was off to a hot start in training camp, showing off added strength to hold up in the run game, while dominating in one-on-one reps and team drills as a pass rusher.
The game doesn’t appear to be too big or the moment overwhelming for Highsmith, which is a great sign for the Steelers. He’ll just focus on stacking days for now.
“You just keep building,” Highsmith said following Thursday’s game against the Cowboys. “You know, it starts on Saturday; you gotta have a great practice at camp. So, you know, just keep stacking days on days. I always like to say, you know, get one percent better every day. So this is really our goal is just to get one percent better every day, and we’re gonna reach our goals.”
Stacking days is something Highsmith has done as of late, so it’s a great mentality to have, especially for a young player who will have all eyes on him as he attempts to replace Bud Dupree this season opposite T.J. Watt.
