With the Pittsburgh Steelers’ 2023 preseason in the books, I wanted to highlight some notable stats from the weekly charting we do. If you’re new to this, we hand-track every play of the Steelers offense (our Tom Mead charts that) and the defense (which I chart) throughout the preseason and regular season. It’s something we’ve done for closing in on a decade now.
For the preseason, I’ll focus more on the individual than the scheme/personnel aspects that aren’t as relevant this time of year. Here are notable takeaways as we close the book on the summer. This is out of 192 snaps.
– Worth noting that dime was used on three snaps while their “big nickel” package with three safeties was used once. We should see more of it in the regular season, though it’ll likely be used only around five percent of the time and will be situational and gameplan dependent.
– Twice, the team was called for having 12 men on the field. Ills of preseason rotation.
Defensive Line
– Armon Watts led all Steelers defensive linemen with three pressures. DeMarvin Leal came in right behind with a pair of pressures. Though Keeanu Benton had a good summer, we recorded just one official pressure. An ankle injury obviously caused him to miss time and he made plays against the run.
– Isaiahh Loudermilk led all Steelers linemen with 73 total snaps. More came in sub-package (42) than base (31), though some of that is game-flow dependent. Pittsburgh being ahead in all three games had teams use more pass personnel. He did not register a pressure.
– Worth noting that DeMarvin Leal was primarily a left-side player. Only eight of his 58 snaps came to the right of center, with the other 50 either at left defensive end (28) or left defensive tackle (22). Loudermilk was a right-side player with only nine of his snaps on the left side. Watts was more evenly split between left (39) and right (23).
– Because of a foot injury, Larry Ogunjobi didn’t play a single snap this summer. Cam Heyward only saw 10.
Linebacker
– Inside linebacker snap count:
Cole Holcomb: 66
Kwon Alexander: 62
Elandon Roberts: 25
A low amount for Roberts, a bit curious. All three though should rotate this fall. For Roberts, almost half (13) of those snaps came in base.
Mark Robinson saw the most inside linebacker reps with 93. Tanner Muse was right behind with 92.
– Of the team’s three dime snaps, Alexander was the lone inside linebacker for two of them. Holcomb was out there for the other.
– Pressure leaders with percentage pressure rate next to the total number:
Nick Herbig – 7 (16.3 percent)
Quincy Roche – 6 (15.0 percent)
Toby Ndukwe – 5 (10.2 percent)
T.J. Watt – 2 (28.6 percent)
Alex Highsmith – 1 (8.3 percent)
David Perales – 1 (1.6 percent)
– Herbig logged 62 preseason snaps. He dropped into coverage once. Of his 43 pass rush snaps, 26 came from the left side. Another 17 from the right.
Secondary
– CB James Pierre played more snaps than any other Steelers defender this summer, 115 total snaps. Per our charting, 111 of them came at right corner. Joey Porter Jr. saw 53 snaps, missing the opener due to an ankle injury. Patrick Peterson saw 26 total snaps, three of which came in the slot, all in the team’s dime defense.
– Of slot corner reps, Chandon Sullivan had 31 while Elijah Riley saw 53 but consistently ran behind Sullivan.
– Because of Tre Norwood’s injury, he only saw 19 snaps this preseason, all in the fourth quarter of the preseason finale.
– Notable target numbers for the Steelers corners:
Patrick Peterson: 3/4 34 yards 0 TDs 0 INTs
Joey Porter Jr.: 1/2 8 yards 0 TDs 1 INT
Chandon Sullivan: 1/3 6 yards 0 TDs 1 INT
Elijah Riley: 3/4 27 yards 0 TDs 0 INTs
Kenny Robinson: 3/3 55 yards 0 TDs 0 INTs
James Pierre: 11/13 114 yards 1 TD 0 INTs
Pierre targeted a ton and the results weren’t pretty. A 128.9 QB rating against.
– Sullivan blitzed five times from his nickel spot. Same with Riley.
