The Steelers are now back at the UPMC Rooney Sports Complex, facing down a long regular season that looks a lot more promising given how things have gone leading up to it. Finishing just above .500 last year, they anticipate being able to compete with any team in the league this season with second-year QB Kenny Pickett leading the way.
They’ve done a great deal to address what they identified as their shortcomings during the offseason, which included addressing the offensive and defensive lines as well as the secondary and the inside linebacker room, which is nearly entirely different from last year. The results have been positive so far.
Even well into the regular season and beyond, there are going to be plenty of questions that need answered. When will the core rookies get to play, or even start? Is the depth sufficient where they upgraded? Can they stand toe-to-toe with the Bengals and the other top teams in the league? We’ll try to frame the conversation in relevant ways as long as you stick with us throughout the season, as we have for many years.
Question: When Will Mark Robinson see another cameo on defense?
Mark Robinson is the only inside linebacker on the roster who was a member of the team a year ago. He was also the only one who wasn’t playing, at least defensively, after the Steelers added veteran Kwon Alexander during training camp to rotate with Cole Holcomb and Elandon Roberts.
The second-year player did get four snaps on defense in this week’s game, however, and even made two tackles in the process, but why was he playing? I’m not sure that there is an obvious reason. His playing time came on the fourth drive of the game for the defense.
Why then? Both teams had already scored a touchdown. This drive came with the Raiders pinned inside their own 15. But the Steelers had already managed to do that earlier in the game and Robinson didn’t play in that situation either. Was somebody in the bathroom?
Again, I don’t know why he played on that drive or why he didn’t play on any other during the game. But it makes me wonder when he might play again and if the Steelers have intentions of installing him into the rotation.
They like to have a rotation at outside linebacker with Markus Golden and Nick Herbig subbing in, but rotations at inside linebacker are less common. That’s especially so if you have an every-down player. The Steelers don’t have one, though.
Or at least they’re not using Cole Holcomb that way. Even coming off his best of three games so far, he only played 74 percent of the defensive snaps, his lowest rate of the season. Roberts also played his lowest of the season, just 24 percent. Alexander’s playing time was pretty consistent.
The difference is that, with a lead for much of the game and with success stopping the run, the defense was aligned in dime more often with only one inside linebacker. And yet they found four snaps for Robinson. I still don’t know why, but I’m still wondering if we should expect to see it again, and when.
