Pittsburgh Steelers outside linebacker Alex Highsmith had a breakout year last season, and while he registered a team-high 14.5 sacks, he hasn’t elevated quite enough to be featured in a starring role. In his press conference today after the team’s minicamp practice, Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin called Highsmith an “elite Robin,” presumably to T.J. Watt’s Batman.
“He’s an elite Robin, as we say,” Tomlin said via Steelers.com. “We like to challenge him in that way. He’s growing, he’s making a name for himself in that way. He’s growing, he’s making a name for himself in this thing. He seeks perfection, his maturation has been one we anticipate and expect. You put quality people in this program and they work within it. They simply get better and their tape does as well. He’s an example of that.”
Just being Robin, who is frequently overshadowed by his richer and more powerful counterpart would be kind of lame and probably not a good description for Highsmith, who is a Pro Bowl-level talent. That’s why Tomlin had to categorize Highsmith as an elite Robin. It’s not often a team has two near-elite pass rushers coming off the edge, but Pittsburgh was able to draft and develop Highsmith and turn him into a player who’s now among the best pass rushers in the game, and maybe the best sidekick.
Highsmith’s entering a contract year, but it would be a major surprise if an extension wasn’t done prior to the start of Week 1 (and it’ll likely be less than Watt’s, meaning he won’t yet achieve Bruce Wayne levels of wealth). In Watt’s absence for an extended period in 2022, Highsmith picked up the slack and led the team in sacks while adding to his pass-rush repertoire.
As Tomlin said, he’s also maturing and growing as a leader, becoming one of the key cogs of Pittsburgh’s defense. If Highsmith continues to grow and lead, he just might become a featured star next to Watt, just as Chris O’Donnell was next to George Clooney in 1995’s “Batman & Robin,” in which O’Donnell received a lot of praise from critics. If that’s the case, maybe Highsmith can be named a Pro Bowler. That is something that should’ve happened last year, but the more notable Watt got the nod ahead of him thanks to the NFL’s flawed voting system.
