With the Pittsburgh Steelers on a break before heading to Latrobe for training camp, we’re going to take a look at our expectations for this upcoming season and offer some over/under statistics to weigh in on. The offense wasn’t overly prolific last year, but the defense did put up some big numbers.
That can change in 2023 now that the offense is beginning to mature around second-year quarterback Kenny Pickett, though, and if the Steelers can keep T.J. Watt healthy all year, that will only help everybody be more productive—perhaps especially the defensive backs. So each day we’ll project one stat line, whether for a player or a unit, and share our thoughts before asking you to weigh in on whether you think they will hit the over or the under.
It is your job to project whether or not the over or under will be hit. At the end of the series we will be tallying up the answers for each installment to create a collective pre-training camp snapshot of where you stand heading into the 2023 season.
Stat Line: 1.5 defensive touchdowns
The Steelers, since drafting T.J. Watt, have been one of the most dynamic and impactful defenses in the league, making what Mike Tomlin likes to call ‘splash plays’, the sort of plays that have the capability of changing the game. Turnovers are a prime example, the objective of which is to keep your own offense off the field by scoring yourself.
The Steelers had one defensive touchdown last year, a pick-six by safety Minkah Fitzpatrick, but he nearly scored on a second interception as well, and he passed up on the opportunity to score on yet another, because not doing so would end the game.
While they came up short of the 1.5 defensive touchdown figure last year, it does show the proof of concept, in that they could have had at least two rather easily if they needed it. Yet it’s worth looking at their recent history.
The Steelers had zero defensive touchdowns in 2021. But they had three, all off of interceptions, in 2020. They also had three the year before that, of which two were fumble recoveries for touchdowns. The same story in 2018, with two pick-sixes and a fumble recovered for a touchdown.
I’m not sure there is a team in the league with more defensive touchdowns over the last five years than the Steelers, yet they’ve only had one in the past two years combined. Still, they should be primed to be just as capable in 2023 of producing in this area as they have at any other point in time in the past half-decade.
So what do you think? Taking these factors and others into consideration, are you taking the over or under 1.5 defensive touchdowns for the Steelers? Answer below and at the end of the series we’ll tally all your answers together to see where you stand before we get to training camp.
