One of the biggest storylines of this training camp for the Steelers has been the rookies. This rookie class has a unique opportunity to play right away for a team that looks to be competitive for a playoff spot. For DT Keeanu Benton, that could mean getting valuable experience clogging the middle and letting stars T.J. Watt and Alex Highsmith cook on the outside.
If there’s one thing that we know Benton will provide in Year One, it’s size and the ability to be a presence in the trenches. Even as a rookie, Benton checks in at 309 pounds, the heaviest of any Steelers defensive player on the roster. He was highly regarded out of college as one of the most powerful and effective run stuffers in the nation, and the Steelers knew what they were getting when they drafted him.
Benton isn’t going to be a pass-rush presence up the middle, as he only recorded nine sacks over four years at Wisconsin. A big knock on him in the draft, and what likely kept him from being a first-round selection, was his lack of explosiveness as an athlete.
He’s going to have to adjust to the speed of the NFL game, but luckily for him, his college experience may make this transition just a little bit easier.
“We run kind of the same defense as Wisconsin,” Benton said in an interview with Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Sports. “So, it’s been kind of an easy transition, just getting the speed of the game down.”
The Steelers defense had a bit of a down season last year sack-wise. After recording 50-plus team sacks for five-straight seasons from 2017-2021, they had just 40 in 2022, tying them for 14th in the NFL. While Benton likely won’t be helping this number directly in 2023, the hope is that he can help it indirectly by taking up space and opening things up.
And with Joe Mixon re-signing with the Cincinnati Bengals, and the always-reliable Nick Chubb still on the Cleveland Browns, his help in the run game will be more than necessary to slow them down. While sometimes relying on your size isn’t as effective at the NFL level as it is in college, Benton still has elite NFL size. If the game can slow down for him as he has reported from training camp, it could make a huge impact on this defense in 2023 and beyond.
