A few short months ago the outside linebacker room in Pittsburgh, at least from a depth perspective behind the likes of T.J. Watt and Alex Highsmith, looked like a major weakness overall with some unknowns.
Now, through the four days of practice at training camp, the outside linebacker group looks rather strong overall, dominating the early portion of camp and making life difficult for the offense in the passing game.
It’s still far too early and we’ll see what happens once the pads come on Tuesday at Chuck Noll Field in Latrobe, but through four practices the outside linebacker room looks like a strength of the Steelers roster for the first time in a long time.
“Collectively, Pittsburgh’s EDGE rushers have impressed. Basically all these guys have made plays. Let’s see if they carry it over once the pads come on,” Steelers Depot’s own Alex Kozora wrote in his Day Four training camp diary from Latrobe.
That’s a welcome sign, especially for a group that is going to need the depth to be more than just serviceable when Watt and Highsmith need blows in-game.
Obviously, Watt and Highsmith are the headliners, the known commodities. Watt is just two seasons removed from a Defensive Player of the Year award and tied the single-season sacks record with 22.5 in 2021. Last season he was hindered by a partially torn pectoral muscle and later bruised ribs that caused him to miss seven games and finish with just 5.5 sacks.
He’s healthy now though and raring to go.
Highsmith is fresh off of a career-high 14.5-sack season in 2022 and tied for the league lead in forced fumbles (five). That breakout season helped the fourth-year pro earn a lucrative contract extension just a week before training camp started, making him among the 10 highest-paid edge rushers in football.
At the top of the depth chart at outside linebacker, the Steelers are in great shape.
Depth was always a concern.
Rookie Nick Herbig, veteran Markus Golden, and even undrafted free agent David Perales are working to put those concerns at ease.
Herbig is off to a fast start at camp and is answering a number of questions about his ability to stick at outside linebacker despite his smaller stature.
On Day Two, Herbig generated a bunch of pressure and made a number of plays, certainly looking the part in shorts and a helmet at the outside linebacker position. Herbig batted down a pass from backup quarterback Mitch Trubisky and also forced a quick throw on another rep due to his quick pressure off the edge, earning praise from head coach Mike Tomlin.
He’s flying around, making plays and giving tackles a real handful in training camp, though the tackles he’s going against are roster bubble guys in veteran Le’Raven Clark and rookie seventh-round tackle Spencer Anderson, as Kozora pointed out in his Day One diary from camp.
On Sunday, Herbig had great success against left tackle Dan Moore Jr. In Kozora’s Day Four training camp diary, Kozora noted that Herbig “dusted Dan Moore off the edge and to the outside” on one rep, earning praise from a fellow defensive player.
Golden has been his steady self early in camp. He has 47.0 sacks on his resume for a reason, including three seasons of double-digit takedowns.
Then there’s Perales, an intriguing UDFA out of Fresno State. He had 38 career tackles for loss, 23 sacks, and a whopping nine forced fumbles. The dude was a flat-out playmaker.
Perales can bend the edge, plays with a hot motor, and is gap sound in the run game — all things the Steelers require from their EDGE defenders. While the testing numbers weren’t all that good overall, that motor and his ability to be assignment sound and consistently in the right place should have him making plays in training camp and in the preseason.
So far, that’s been the case with Perales. He’s shown some ability to get after the passer in camp early on. Perales even batted down a Mason Rudolph pass at the line of scrimmage on Day Three in Latrobe.
For a position group that has such great importance to the Steelers — it’s really the engine of the 3-4 defense — the group has done a complete 180-degree turn behind Watt and Highsmith, going from a major unknown and serious question mark into arguably the strength of the team overall, at least based on early returns in training camp.
We’ll see what happens to the group once the pads come on, but so far the position group looks very promising. What a development.
