Have the Pittsburgh Steelers finally taken a step toward settling their inside linebacker room, even if only temporarily? Months after the front office uprooted nearly the entire position room, the group seemed to fare well in the first preseason game on Friday night.
The player who stood out most of all was Kwon Alexander, only signed about a week and a half before putting the pads on for a game for the first time. It helped that he already has over 5,000 NFL defensive snaps under his belt, and defensive schemes are not exactly complex in the preseason, but nevertheless, it was an encouraging showing—not without some blemishes of course, which he knows.
“I’m loving it”, he said of his first taste of working within the Steelers’ defensive scheme, via the team’s website. “Still learning the ins and outs, but I’m gonna figure it out. This is what I’ve been working on all day at camp, all week, still trying to figure it out”.
Alexander has now played for five different teams and six different coordinators, and he’s even experienced a midseason trade. He knows a thing or two about cramming and getting himself up to speed in a hurry.
And it doesn’t hurt when you like what you’re seeing in your playbook. The Steelers’ scheme allows Alexander to read and react and to hit, and he seems to be a big fan of that. We’ll see as time goes on and the defensive game plans gain in complexity how his role evolves.
Signed on July 30, the veteran found himself on the open market throughout the offseason even in spite of the fact that he was coming off his first season without injury issues since 2016. He played well, but in a supporting role, for the New York Jets in 2022.
It only took a veteran salary benefit contract for the Steelers to land him and his experience, but if the preseason debut and practice reports are anything to go by, he is going to see playing time this year, mixing in with Cole Holcomb and Elandon Roberts. He may even wind up with a starting role before all is said and done.
But the coaches will have to make sure that he is fully up to speed if they mean for him to take on a bigger job. Not that he should struggle with that aspect of the game, but little more than a month isn’t necessarily ideal for learning an entire defensive scheme. Even for one as familiar with multiple schemes as he is.
What’s next for Alexander? Doing it all again at the end of this week. Put out another game of tape like he did on Friday, and then do it again in the preseason finale. Next time, however, we should see a lot more playing time from Holcomb and Roberts, so he will have to be patient in waiting his turn.
