If there was one veteran reserve who really stood out on defense for the Pittsburgh Steelers on Friday night in their preseason opener, it had to be ILB Kwon Alexander, signed just after the team had opened training camp.
Though he’d had under two weeks to pick up the defense, his 5,000-plus snaps of defensive playing experience showed up in his performance. It was easy to come away impressed. Former Steeler and current analyst Chris Hoke had the same reaction.
“Last year the weakest spot on the defense I thought was the inside linebacker position”, he said on The PM Team program on 93.7 The Fan yesterday, with Andrew Fillipponi and Chris Mueller. “I thought that Kwon Alexander really represented himself well”.
Signed to a one-year veteran salary benefit contract, he has been running second team for the most part, but with some first-team snaps mixed in during practice. The Steelers signed Cole Holcomb and Elandon Roberts at the start of free agency to be their starters. Some are becoming less convinced it remains that way.
“I’m looking forward to seeing more from him in the next couple games in the preseason”, Hoke said, calling it an upgrade and saying he believes Alexander will challenge for a starting role. “I think it’s either him or Elandon Roberts…There’s gonna be some kind of mix, some kind of rotation with those three guys, because they’re all been-there, done-that guys”.
Holcomb has been an every-down player for the majority of his career, and to his credit, has had a solid camp. That is not insignificant given his limited participation in the spring while recovering from surgery on a foot injury.
Though both are quite experienced, Roberts and Alexander have enjoyed part-time roles in recent years. In Alexander’s case, however, that is probably as much to do with his health history as anything else. The 2023 season was the first in which he did not miss at least four games since early in his career.
He played in all 17 games, but just under half of the defensive snaps for the New York Jets. One can’t help but wonder what the correlation between snaps per game and health means for him. Does he simply need to be protected against himself in order to hold up from an injury standpoint? Would the Steelers be wise to use him situationally rather than hoping for him to be a 900-snap player?
Before they even have to address that question, he has to prove to be one of the top two answers at inside linebacker. He has made good progress in the roughly two weeks since he’s been here, but it would be premature to say that he’s earned a starting job already, as least if the coaches have any pretense of a competition.
