What a difference a year makes at inside linebacker for the Pittsburgh Steelers.
After seeing limited playmaking at the position in 2022, the Steelers and GM Omar Khan went out in free agency and were aggressive, adding the likes of Cole Holcomb, Elandon Roberts and Kwon Alexander to try and shore up inside linebacker.
So far, early returns are very positive, especially with Holcomb.
Coming over from Washington after signing a three-year, $18 million deal, Holcomb has provided real playmaking for the defense. In the first three games, Holcomb has already matched the number of tackles for loss Devin Bush had last season and has more forced fumbles than Bush and Myles Jack had in 2022.
Holcomb’s playmaking abilities showed up again on Sunday Night Football against the Las Vegas Raiders. Holcomb had a big tackle for loss early in the game and a big pass breakup on a huge hit on Raiders receiver Davante Adams early in the third quarter.
So far in 186 snaps, Holcomb grades out at a 65.8 overall, including a 60.9 run defense and a 65.0 pass defense. Against the Raiders on Sunday Night Football, Holcomb graded out at a just a 57.2 overall but that was due to his coverage issues, allowing five receptions on five targets as the nearest defender for 74 yards.
Let’s take a look at the film from Holcomb’s showing against the Raiders.
Early on, Holcomb helped set the tone against the run for the Steelers.
Following some serious struggles the first two weeks that saw the Steelers have the worst run defense in football, Pittsburgh came in determined to stop the run. They did just that and got better linebacker play against the run in the process.
It might not look like much initially, but this is good stuff from Holcomb.
He processes so quickly and gets to the gap, working downhill in the process to take space away. He’s able to stay clean off blocks, too, keeping himself square to the line of scrimmage to make a play on Las Vegas running back Josh Jacobs at the line of scrimmage for the stop.
Later in the first half, Holcomb puts his processing skills on display again, firing downhill immediately against the run to record a big tackle for loss.
Film study paid off here for Holcomb.
He knew what was coming just by the little motion from wide receiver Jakobi Meyers. You can see him inching up towards the line of scrimmage. His eyes immediately find the gap and he fires through with force, dragging down Jacobs for the tackle for loss.
Heck of a play from Holcomb one-on-one in the backfield, against a power back, too.
Though he did allow five receptions, Holcomb was tight in coverage throughout the night, at least in man.
He gets away with a holding call here against Jacobs out of the backfield, wrapping him up to try and take him out of his route and not lose track of him.
Holcomb does a good job of staying tight, but Jimmy Garoppolo is able to complete the pass in the end. Kudos to Holcomb for getting Jacobs on the ground quickly, though.
Throughout the night when asked to defend Jacobs out of the backfield, Holcomb was rather aggressive, attempting to get hands on the running back quickly. Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn’t. It sort of worked here, even though it went for a completion.
Opening up the third quarter, Holcomb continued to set the tone for the Steelers, landing a massive shot on Davante Adams over the middle, forcing an incompletion.
The veteran linebacker gets great depth in his drop, reads Garoppolo’s eyes and lays a wallop on Adams.
That’s teach tape right there.
He’s able to read Garoppolo’s eyes, but it doesn’t slow him down from gaining depth in his drop. That’s a ton of ground Holcomb covers in the end, too. Big-time play. Still remains absolutely silly that the official thought to throw the flag just because of the big hit. Granted, it was waved off, but that about sums up football right now.
What I liked about Holcomb’s game on Sunday was his tendency to attack downhill against the run. He trusted his eyes and shot downhill consistently. He packed a punch at the point of attack against blockers, too, which was very encouraging.
Good rep here reading the zone run and working laterally, all while gaining ground, to get into the run lane.
Being able to work downhill and get into this run lane helped slow down the play. Though he doesn’t get credited for a tackle, Holcomb’s presence at the top of the hole slowed Jacobs down, allowing teammates to get off blocks and get a run stop.
Run defense is an 11-man job. Holcomb is an example of that consistently.
He was also an example of what can go run with run defense when one guy is out of position.
Here in the fourth quarter, Holcomb again fires downhill, but he takes himself out of the play, allowing Jacobs to set him up and hit the gas.
Holcomb sees the hole open up and assumes Jacobs is going to hit it, but he doesn’t see the lane opening up outside, too. Larry Ogunjobi gets walked back in the duo and T.J. Watt gets sealed outside, opening up a big lane. Holcomb tries to blow it up, but the Raiders guard is waiting for him, peeling off for the block, giving Jacobs a huge lane off tackle to get into the secondary.
Holcomb has to let the running back pick the lane there, rather than making the first move, putting him at a disadvantage immediately.
The only real gaffe I saw from Holcomb in coverage came early in the fourth quarter in zone.
He does a good job of gaining depth here a version of Tampa 2 from the Steelers with T.J. Watt dropping and Kwon Alexander running deep middle. Holcomb has the area of the field from the hashmarks to the numbers, while cornerback Levi Wallace has to protect the sidelines from the line of scrimmage to anywhere between 15 and 20 yards out.
Wallace is in a great spot here and is able to take the responsibility of the check-down running back out of the backfield. Holcomb gets good depth, but he loses responsibility just enough, taking a slight slide towards the running back on the check down, overplaying just a bit. That opens up the middle of the field for Garoppolo to fire a strike to Adams for a big gain.
Here, Holcomb has to just trust his role in the defense and sit there between the numbers and the hash marks. If he’s in the right position, there’s a great chance Garoppolo doesn’t try to layer this throw into the middle of the field. That slight movement to his right opened up enough space though for the big gain.
Overall it was a solid day for Holcomb. He played the run well, made some impact plays in the run and against the pass and continues to be a solid player in Pitsburgh’s defense. The investment in him via free agency continues to look like a sound one through three weeks.
