Pittsburgh Steelers nose tackle Breiden Fehoko has been saying all the right things and pushing the right buttons since signing with the team this offseason. Though he is fighting for a roster spot this year, so much about him embodies a particular Steelers attitude and mindset, and one that fortunately seems to fit nicely with the vision they have for the team this year. He’s an old-school nose tackle, even if he knows it’s a dying breed.
“It’s kind of turning into the old fullback position”, he said recently during an interview on Steelers Nation Radio with Dale Lolley and Matt Williamson. “You don’t know you need it until you need it. I think it’s a fallen art. I think everybody just kind of recruits tackles nowadays. When you throw ‘nose’ in front of the ‘tackle’, everybody thinks, like, a bigger body, a wide type, Vince Wilfork or Casey Hampton”.
I’m not sure there’s a better and more succinct advertisement for a good run-stopping nose tackle in 2023 than what Fehoko just provided. You don’t know you need it until you need it. Go light at your own peril, because the smart teams are going to counter with heavies and run down your throat.
Now, Fehoko isn’t necessarily the biggest nose tackle to play the game, though he’s got sufficient size to him. But he knows the position is as much about assignment and mindset as it is body type. “The general embodiment of nose tackle is to make sure that they don’t run the ball in between the tackles”, he said. “From B Gap to B Gap, you want to make sure the lanes are technically clogged, but you’re playing your blocks well”, he went on. “I take a lot of pride in that. I take a lot of pride in making sure there’s no running in between the tackles. I take a lot of pride in putting my hands on the center, making sure he doesn’t climb up to the linebacker”.
With Tyson Alualu presumably retiring, the Steelers are looking for a few good men to clog up the middle. They still have Montravius Adams, but they also just drafted Keeanu Benton out of Wisconsin in the second round. In addition to Fehoko, they also signed Armon Watts, though he’s less of the traditional run-plugger type.
Between the group of them, the coaching staff will have to figure out which combination works best. Arguably the only one of the group guaranteed a roster spot is Benton. Adams is the veteran and the incumbent starter, but I don’t know that we can count on him definitely making the team.
That will be decide in training camp, and one could argue there will be a different standard against which they are judged this year. There has been a greater emphasis on physicality placed on their personnel assessment this offseason, and Adams is more finesse than a guy like Fehoko, who would have fit in Pittsburgh in 2008.
