The defensive line lost two key components of its depth and rotation this offseason, saying goodbye to veterans Tyson Alualu and Chris Wormley. And yet many still feel as though the Pittsburgh Steelers are as deep at the position as they have been in some time.
Even after weathering the retirement of Stephon Tuitt, the front office was able to fill the void by adding Larry Ogunjobi to pair with Cameron Heyward. The latter, now in his 13th season, understands the importance of having depth to take some of the load off his shoulders, something the team hasn’t always been able to do.
“I can’t play every rep. It comes down to having solid guys behind me, which I think we do”, he told reporters yesterday, via the team’s website. “[Isaiahh] Loudermilk, Armon Watts, there’s a boatload of guys that I think can play. We got [Keeanu] Benton, we got DeMarvin Leal. It’s not gonna come down to just me. It never will. It’s just about making sure we’ve got fresh guys on the field”.
The most notable names on that list, at least from the fan perspective, are Benton and Leal, the team’s duo of Day Two draft picks at the position over the past two seasons. While Benton is expected to line up at nose tackle—and Leal anywhere he fits—both should be capable of contributing to the defensive line rotation.
Yet Loudermilk and Watts, the latter a 2023 addition in free agency, are the more veteran, more experienced players, with the former now going into his third season with the Steelers, though he hasn’t played a ton of snaps.
In addition to those already named, the Steelers also have Montravius Adams and Breiden Fehoko, plausible roster options who are more pigeonholed as tackles rather than end-capable players. Fehoko much more so than Adams.
But the group taken as a whole does likely constitute the most high-quality depth the defensive line room has had in at least a few years, certainly since Tuitt was last on the field. Indeed, at least one player named in this article, if not more, won’t be on the 53-man roster.
But who will contribute where, and how much? Who will be the top rotational end to spell Heyward and Ogunjobi? Is that going to be Leal, who is spending just as much time working at other positions, seemingly? Could it be Loudermilk, who early on was compared to a young Heyward? Might it be the veteran Watts, or even the rookie Benton?
That’s what training camp is for, to figure out the answers to those sorts of questions. But the good news is that, at least on paper, the Steelers seem to have a more robust group of options than they’ve had the luxury of in recent years.
