When the Pittsburgh Steelers made an initial splash in free agency, inking veteran linebacker Cole Holcomb to a three-year, $18 million deal, the move drew a bunch of “meh” takes.
Holcomb was viewed as a fine player overall, but not one who would move the needle at the position in the way that the Steelers have been desperately searching for over the last half decade. Add in the injury history with Holcomb and it felt like the Steelers were taking a major gamble on the linebacker with a multi-year deal.
Through training camp and two games of the preseason though, Holcomb is making the Steelers look rather smart.
In his home debut for the Steelers last Saturday at Acrisure Stadium, Holcomb had some strong reps in 25 snaps against the Buffalo Bills. He communicated well, had guys lined up and ready to go, played with physicality and energy, and helped force a turnover in the Steelers’ 27-15 win.
His play against Buffalo was a continuation of what he showed throughout training camp, flying around making plays and being around the football constantly. So far, the returns have been promising with Holcomb in the middle of the defense. It’s a good sign that the Steelers have aggressiveness and playmaking at the position once again.
That showed on Saturday.
Too often in the past, Steelers linebackers have been a bit passive attacking downhill, taking the fight to the offensive linemen trying to reach them at the second level in the run game.
That isn’t a problem with Holcomb. In one of his first snaps of the game, Holcomb came downhill with force to dish out punishment to a Buffalo offensive lineman, clogging up the hole in the process, leading to a run of no gain on the play.
He processes quickly, flies downhill and strikes the offensive lineman in the process. Holcomb doesn’t make the tackle, but the force coming downhill to take on the blocker plugs everything up, allowing support to come in and clean up the play.
Arguably his best play of the game came a few series later against the run.
Near midfield, Holcomb reads the wind-back run well. Coming downhill to split the tight end and the pulling wide receiver coming across the formation looking for a kick-out block, he blows up the play.
Holcomb does an excellent job striking the tight end in the chest, keeping not only leverage but separation to get off the block and play the run. Good eyes here, too, to use his hands to ward off the wide receiver coming across. From there, he splits the blocks and makes the tackle on the running back.
Very, very solid play all-around from Holcomb. More of that, please.
In pass coverage, Holcomb had some struggles, especially in one-on-one situations.
Here over top of tight end Dalton Kincaid, Holcomb gets caught flat-footed on the option route by Buffalo’s impressive rookie.
Holcomb does a good job of not guessing on the route, but once he sees Kincaid break outside there is a slight hesitation as he’s caught flat-footed instead of on the balls of his feet, making it slower to move in that direction.
Fortunately for Holcomb, it was a poor throw from Matt Barkley, resulting in an incompletion.
Later on in the same drive, the Bills go after the Holcomb/Kincaid matchup and win this time.
Holcomb has Kincaid out of the slot on an option route, and Kincaid catches the veteran linebacker leaning outside. Seeing that, Kincaid shimmies and breaks inside for a skinny post, leading to an explosive play for the Bills.
Holcomb does well to get over top of Kincaid initially on the rep, but once he bounces outside and is caught leaning, he’s done for in space. That’s a hard matchup to win in general, especially against an athlete like Kincaid, but better technique will be key in those situations moving forward because Holcomb will see a lot of that this season.
On one of his final plays of the night, Holcomb was very good in coverage, which was a great sign.
In zone coverage here, Holcomb knows he has to sit and take up space and handle anything crossing into his area near the goal line.
He’s a very smart linebacker and really reads things well overall. I love that he kept turning his head towards the front side of the play to see what was developing out there while also bouncing back to get a look at the quarterback. As he’s doing this, he sees the inside receiver break outside and knows that an in-breaking route is coming.
Watch him flip his head/eyes back outside one final time and then find Barkley in the pocket again, getting his hands on the football to tip it into the air for the interception.
Outstanding stuff from Holcomb here in zone. No panic, sit in your spot, know the formation and what’s likely coming into your vicinity and find the football.
Overall, it was a strong night for Holcomb against the Bills. Three tackles, allowed just one reception and played a key role in tipping the ball in the red zone for the turnover, keeping Buffalo off the board. We’ll see how much run he gets Thursday night against the Atlanta Falcons on the road, but hard to not be pleased with what Holcomb has shown this summer and through two weeks in the preseason.
