The Pittsburgh Steelers kept their busy offseason going, adding yet another piece to their revamped linebacker room with the signing of Kwon Alexander. So, I will continue the series by looking at data of his 2022 season in run defense, including Cole Holcomb, Elandon Roberts, and 2022 Steelers as well for comparative context. Using data from Pro Football Focus (PFF), I will take a similar approach to the article I did earlier this offseason, and today’s focus will primarily be on Alexander.
Let’s get right to it, starting with 2022 run defense snaps and average tackle depth to get a gauge of the quantity of plays and yardage comparatively:
In 2022, Alexander had a below average 286 run snaps (50th), playing in these situations more often than his 245 coverage snaps, and appeared in all 17 games last season. He provided an above the mean 3.1 average depth of tackle, which encouragingly tied for 20th out of the 82 qualifying linebackers (minimum of 150 run snaps), emphasizing his downhill abilities, and was second best of the highlighted players we’re focused on. Roberts topped this list comfortably, and when taking Holcomb’s result into account, we see the new Pittsburgh linebackers all at or above the NFL average, refreshingly. This would be a welcomed improvement, and hopefully the unit can provide similar results for the Black and Gold this season, compared to where the 2022 Steelers landed.
Now let’s look at types of tackles, solo versus assisted tackles against the run:
Here we see much different results for Alexander, particularly low in assisted run tackles (only five) which tied for last among the qualifying NFL linebackers, and 22 solo run tackles (T-68th), which tied with Robert Spillane for the least among the linebackers in our sights. We can obviously see the quantity was not there for Alexander in 2022, despite having more substantial run snap opportunities than Spillane and Holcomb, which is very important context to his run tackle totals.
Next, I wanted to see how the players fared in a hit-or-miss type of view with stop percentage, which uses the successful play rates formula (less than 40 percent on first down, 50 percent or less on second down, and third or fourth down plays kept from a first down or touchdown) and missed tackle percentage:
Unfortunately, we see more bad news on Alexander’s 2022 season, as the only focused player to land well below the mean in both data points and ranking last in each. He was the only linebacker in our sights with a below average missed tackle rate of 15.6 percent, tying for a very low 72nd rank. His 4.7 stop percentage left much to be desired as well, tying for the fourth-lowest mark (77th). We can clearly see there was volatility to Alexander’s 2022 season as a run defender, which is very important context to his highlight reel ability that we hopefully see more of in 2023, along with more consistency on a play-to-play basis.
To close, let’s look at a more total view of how the players fared in the run game with PFF run defense grades along with points above average per play (a players EPA responsibility on run plays using the total points system that distributes credit among all players on the field for a given play, and accounts for defenders in the box, blown blocks forced, broken tackles, and turnovers) from Sports Info Solutions (SIS):
Alexander’s points above average was his best result, landing second among the focused group and tying for 17th in the NFL, which is his best ranking in today’s study. While there were inconsistencies in his run defense, the good news was it didn’t lead to dire big play or scoring opportunities compared to his peers at the position (see Devin Bush, for example). It’s also encouraging to see the 2023 Steelers linebackers all above average in these terms once again. Alexander landed right at the league mean in PFF run defense grade (63.0), which tied for 45th among the qualifying NFL linebackers, re-emphasizing some of the ups and downs he had as a run defender last season.
So, the run defense findings for the 2023 Pittsburgh linebackers leaves optimism for improvements from last season overall. For Alexander in particular, he was utilized in the run game at a below-average rate compared to his peers (50th), where he provided his most snaps in 17 games for the Jets in 2022. The elements of run defense that he fared best in were points above average (T-17th) and average depth of tackle (T-20th), impressively, with the latter emphasizing his main strength is getting downhill and “laying the wood” on some highlight worthy tackles, including six tackles for loss in 2022.
His PFF run defense grade landed right at the mean (T-45th), which points to some weaknesses in run defense last year. The rest of the data unfortunately points to this other side of the coin for Alexander: solo run tackles (T-68th), missed tackle rate (T-72nd), stop rate (T-77th), and assists (T-last) out of the 82 qualifying linebackers. Hopefully he can continue to provide some of the high-end abilities he did in 2022, while my main hope is that Alexander can clean up his missed tackles and improve in stop rate. That would provide even more of an impact on the opportunities he is hopefully able to earn in the Black and Gold for 2023. I can’t wait to see how it all plays out.
What are your thoughts on the data and the addition of Kwon Alexander? Thanks for reading and let me know your thoughts in the comments.
