Over the last year in the new regime for the Pittsburgh Steelers, an emphasis has been placed on rebuilding the trenches on both sides of the football.
Though more moves have occurred on the offensive side of the ball in the trenches, the rebuild defensively is seemingly complete, which has Pittsburgh’s defensive line ranking inside the top 5 in Pro Football Focus’s positional rankings Friday morning.
Granted, PFF considers the Steelers’ outside linebackers in T.J. Watt, Alex Highsmith and Markus Golden as defensive linemen in this exercise, which certainly helps the ranking, but with the likes of Cameron Heyward, Larry Ogunjobi and rookie Keeanu Benton in the trenches, not to mention veterans like Montravius Adams, Breiden Fehoko, Armon Watts, Isaiahh Loudermilk and DeMarvin Leal, the Steelers are in really good shape in the trenches on the defensive side of the football.
In PFF’s rankings, Pittsburgh landed at No. 5 overall, only behind the Philadelphia Eagles, San Francisco 49ers, Washington Commanders and Miami Dolphins.
“Pittsburgh’s defensive line boasts some elite players, even if interior defender Cameron Heyward turned 34 in March and edge defender T.J. Watt earned his lowest grade since 2018 in an injury-plagued year,” PFF’s Zoltan Buday writes regarding the Steelers’ defensive line rankings. “Edge defender Alex Highsmith had a breakout season in 2022, finishing 24th at his position in overall grade (78.0). However, the unit lacks the depth it once had and needs rookie Keeanu Benton to play well right off the bat for the Steelers to retain their place in this top five.”
Seeing Pittsburgh land at No. 5 is a bit of a surprise, especially ahead of teams like Cleveland, and the New York Giants, but there’s no denying that the Steelers are rather loaded at the starting level with Heyward, Watt, Highsmith and Ogunjobi in the sub package, not to mention veterans in Fehoko, Watts or Adams at nose tackle until Benton is ready for the starting role.
The Steelers did a nice job retaining Ogunjobi in free agency, signing him to a three-year, $28.75 million deal on the open market after spending the 2022 season with Pittsburgh. Though he battled injuries throughout the season and missed a lot of practice time, Ogunjobi showed up in the games and had a solid season overall. Fully healthy and comfortable in the Steelers system, Ogunjobi could be in a for a big year in 2023.
Pittsburgh tinkered with the roster in the trenches ahead of the draft, adding veterans Watts and Fehoko along the interior, though neither truly moves the needle at the position. They have plenty of experience though and could be good depth pieces.
Adams also returns for another season, though he is coming off of a down 2022 season and is safely considered a bubble player ahead of training camp, as is Loudermilk. Loudermilk has all the tools and is the lone true 3-tech backup behind Heyward and Ogunjobi, but he had a rough 2022 season.
While Buday writes that the Steelers lack depth, that really isn’t the case, especially if Leal sticks at defensive end full-time, instead of playing a number of roles like he did as a rookie. Granted, Pittsburgh is without the experience of Chris Wormley and Tyson Alualu in the trenches from a year ago, but there’s plenty of depth on paper that Pittsburgh should feel rather comfortable working with under defensive line coach Karl Dunbar and outside linebackers coach Denzel Martin in the trenches.
