Even after losing in rather disheartening fashion to open the 2023 season at home against the San Francisco 49ers, the Pittsburgh Steelers fell just two spots in the latest ESPN Power Rankings that dropped Tuesday morning.
After sitting at No. 14 entering the season with a lot of hype, the Steelers dropped to No. 16 on Tuesday, falling behind the Green Bay Packers and New Orleans Saints, both of whom made significant moves up the power rankings.
In the Power Rankings, ESPN’s Brooke Pryor identified veteran free agent linebacker Elandon Roberts as the Steelers player with the “best debut performance” Sunday against the 49ers. In the loss, Roberts recorded seven tackles and two tackles for loss in just 43 percent of the snaps, playing just 29 total snaps in the 30-7 loss.
“Hard to find much good from the Steelers’ blowout loss to the 49ers but Roberts was as effective as he could be against one of the league’s best running backs, Christian McCaffrey. Though Roberts played less than 50% of defensive snaps — the fewest of the new inside linebacker acquisitions — he recorded two tackles for loss, including one when he brought down McCaffrey in the first quarter,” Pryor writes regarding Roberts’ debut as part of ESPN’s Power Rankings.
Though he played less than 30 snaps in the blowout loss, Roberts made the most of them.
His seven tackles were tied for second-most on the team with Alex Highsmith and were two behind team leader Kwon Alexander. Roberts’ two tackles for loss also led the team in that category. That he did that despite playing the fewest of the three new veteran linebacker additions in Alexander and Cole Holcomb is rather impressive. Holcomb played 53 snaps (78 percent) and Alexander played 47 snaps (69 percent) against the 49ers.
How that split in reps looks moving forward is anyone’s guess, but it’s clear that Roberts is going to be an impact defender for the Steelers when on the field, especially against the run. He was as advertised, which isn’t all that surprising. He was good against the run, grading out at a 72.1 in the run game, according to Pro Football Focus.
But, as expected, he struggled in coverage, generating a 39.3 grade, causing his overall defensive grade to sit at just 59.5 in Week One. His one real gaffe in coverage came on an early fourth and 1 in which he tried to play the run downhill and got caught in coverage with 49ers tight end George Kittle, resulting in an easy completion to the All-Pro tight end, allowing the Niners to move the chains.
It was a strong debut overall for Roberts even on a day in which very little went right for the Steelers defensively.
