Throughout the three preseason games for the Pittsburgh Steelers, the outside linebacker position has been rather impressive for the Black and Gold, thanks to performances from veteran Markus Golden and rookie Nick Herbig against the likes of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Buffalo Bills and Atlanta Falcons.
On Thursday night against the Falcons at Mercedes-Benz Stadium though, third-year pass rusher Quincy Roche showed just how deep and skilled the outside linebacker room is in Pittsburgh.
Against the Falcons, Roche — a former sixth-round pick in 2021 that was released that year and caught on with the New York Giants before returning in January on a Reserve/Futures deal — recorded five pressures and a strip sack in the 24-0 win, making a late push for a roster spot on either the 53-man or the 16-man practice squad.
In 17 career games including three starts in the NFL, Roche has 2.5 sacks, so he is experienced depth overall.
His performance against the Falcons was rather intriguing and showed how capable he is overall.
Early on in his performance against the Falcons in which he played 65 total snaps, Roche was a force of the edge getting after the passer.
Here against Atlanta rookie Matthew Bergeron, Roche does a great job using his inside arm to chopping down Bergeron’s initial punch, ripping through to give him the corner. From there, Roche has some intriguing bend, but he’s just a tick slow to turn the corner for the sack.
Later on in the game, Roche finds himself against Atlanta rookie Barry Wesley and creates good pressure off the edge with a similar punch and rip to try and turn the corner.
Roche does a nice job getting upfield with his get-off, putting the offensive tackle at a disadvantage in his pass set. That speed and overall hand usage allows him to win and create pressure, forcing the ball out quickly.
Club/rip again from Roche, and he’s able to turn the corner, dip and accelerate to the quarterback for the pressure and the hit overall.
Roche doesn’t have a deep pass rush arsenal overall, but the hand usage is very solid in the club/rip, allowing him to knock the lineman’s hands down giving him the split second to bend the edge for the pressure.
Roche capped off his night as a pass rusher in style.
Really good push/pull from Roche to get the offensive tackle off balance. He’s able to use the pull portion to slingshot around the corner and get in on Logan Woodside, going for the football and the strip sack. How Woodside avoided any serious injury to his elbow is incredible, because that’s serious torque on his elbow with the strip sack.
That’s a thing of beauty from a pass rush with Roche though. Really impressive overall.
As a run defender it was a bit up and down from the Miami (Fl.) product.
This is a good effort play from Roche.
Unblocked, Roche does a good job of chasing from the backside and catching the running back at the line of scrimmage for the big run stop. If Roche doesn’t chase this play down from the backside, the Atlanta running back likes picks up a big chunk of yards due to the Steelers’ defensive back Lavert Hill scraping too far over initially, leaving a big hole.
There was some bad with Roche, too.
This can’t happen, especially against a tight end, in the run game.
Roche gets completely washed out of the play and buried frontside. His feet get a bit crossed up overall at the initial point of attack, which allows the tight end to gain control and run Roche off the spot, creating the big lane.
It’s an ugly rep overall, and really the only negative on the day for Roche.
Though the top four of Watt, Highsmith, Golden and Herbig are set in stone at the position, the Steelers could surprise some and keep a fifth edge rusher like Roche due to his experience and special teams abilities. Chances are though, it wasn’t enough to stick in Pittsburgh. That said, it was a very good piece of tape to put out there for Roche to show other teams.
He’s a capable edge rusher in the NFL. We’ll see what’s in store for the former Hurricanes’ standout.
