Pittsburgh Steelers OLB Alex Highsmith exploded onto the scene in 2022, bringing down opposing quarterbacks 14.5 times during the 17-game season. He also added 20 more quarterback hits and 12 tackles for a loss, cementing his status as a top-tier disruptor. So it was no surprise that the Steelers locked up the former third-round pick in the 2020 NFL draft during the offseason.
However, all great players are always striving to get better. That means studying their game for weaknesses as well as improving what they’re already good at. Evidently, Highsmith feels much the same way when asked about what he’s working on at training camp. Steelers.com captured Highsmith’s thoughts on what he’s doing at Saint Vincent College to get better.
“I’ve been trying to switch some things up,” Highsmith said. “I studied my film last year, and dudes are starting to sit on some of my different moves and starting to stop certain moves that I have. So I’ve just been trying to add to my arsenal and trying to perfect the moves that I already gave. I’ve just been working a lot, and I’m excited to see the fruits of my labor.”
Highsmith got off to a blazing start in 2022, registering three sacks in the Steelers’ Week One 23-20 win over the Cincinnati Bengals, a single-game career high. He would register two more multi-sack games in the first nine games of the season but fail to do so again until the Week 17 win over the Cleveland Browns where he had 2.5 sacks.
Evidently the lack of multi-sack games, Week 17 notwithstanding, bothered Highsmith. He was held without even a half-sack in four of his last eight games and only registered half a sack in one other game. So he turned the tape on to see what he was doing and what opponents were doing to him.
Highsmith apparently found that opposing offensive tackles were keying in on his moves and learning how to stop him. That meant he needed to develop some new moves while also taking his current slate of moves to the next level. One such move that is already devastating offensive tackles and quarterbacks is his inside spin move.
There’s no question that Highsmith has shown the ability to elevate his game to the next level since he set foot on campus at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. His career started out as a walk-on 3-4 defensive end before he exploded for 15 sacks in his senior year along with 21.5 tackles for a loss, both numbers that led Conference USA in 2019.
As long as Highsmith sticks to what has inspired his development to this point, there’s no reason to think that his arsenal isn’t going to become a bigger and bigger problem for opposing offenses across the league. It also doesn’t hurt that he can continue to learn from one of the best in the game today, T.J. Watt.
