Even if he didn’t get the official nod, Pittsburgh Steelers OLB Alex Highsmith played at a Pro Bowl level last season. He led the team with 14.5 sacks and also recorded five forced fumbles. Nobody in the NFL had more of the latter.
A big part of that productivity was thanks to his wicked spin move, a go-to weapon in his arsenal that he’s been honing for years. While he had it at its best during the 2022 season, he’s looking to make it even better.
“The spin move is lethal, I will say that”, defensive coordinator Teryl Austin told reporters yesterday, via the team’s website. “But really the thing that he’s doing, like most great players and guys who strive to be great, is they’re working on their craft”.
“What he’s trying to do is get better at all the things that he does”, he continued. “And he knows he does it well; it doesn’t mean it’s good enough. I think that’s a testament to him and his ability and his want to be a great player”.
The NFL is a reactive league; the more success Highsmith put on tape using that spin move, the more teams prepared for it. We did see some left tackles beginning to learn how to counter it successfully in the second half of the season.
I wouldn’t put it past him to continue to polish that move to Dwight Freeney levels. He’s got the three qualities you need to succeed in the NFL: talent, intelligence, and work ethic. He knows what he needs to do, is willing to do it, and is capable of doing it.
It’s no surprise that he has progressively gotten better and no shock that he is expected to continue to do so. He learned and grew a lot during the 2022 season in comparison to the year before. This upcoming season perhaps should be the year that he truly enters his prime now that he both knows what he is doing and has the confidence to know that he can do it.
He has been a diligent and studious worker this offseason, making active adjustments by studying how teams began to counter him throughout the course of the year and adjusted to his game so that he can create a plan for how to counter back.
With that kind of effort, the only roadblock in his path is health. As long as he can stay healthy, I cannot envision a scenario in which he does not have a successful follow-up season to his breakout year in 2022. All the ingredients are in the pot. All he’s got to do is turn on the heat and cook.
