The Pittsburgh Steelers chose to keep seven defensive linemen on the 53-man roster this season, at least to start out. They may have to lean on that depth in the season opener against the San Francisco 49ers, for a number of reasons.
The most obvious area of concern we have to address is the injury report. Larry Ogunjobi has been limited with a foot injury through the first two days of practice this week. While it seems he is expected to play, you have to wonder if he will be limited. He missed much of training camp and the preseason because of the injury and spent time in a walking boot. Cameron Heyward is also dealing with a stomach issue.
Teams are naturally more inclined to favor rotations in the early portions of the season as well, because players are not going to be at peak cardio at that point of the year. They haven’t played a full game’s worth of snaps against starters, so fatigue will be a factor. The 49ers in particular also pose specific problems.
“You’re not going to line up and play that goal line defense and pack the box because they’re going to spread you out”, defensive coordinator Teryl Austin said yesterday, via transcript provided by the team’s media department. “One of them may go out, one of them may come back, then all of a sudden they’re in a spread run game, or they want to pass it. You have a dilemma there. They make it hard for you because those guys are interchangeable”.
The 49ers offense includes versatile skill-position players like Deebo Samuel and Christian McCaffrey and George Kittle, all three of whom can assume a variety of roles at all points of the field. That means a lot of movement for the front seven and more difficult assignments.
Still, intentions don’t always lead to action. “You like to say, okay, yeah, you rotate. It depends on how many snaps you have”, Austin said. “If you have a bunch of snaps, guys are a little bit tired, yeah, we’re going to rotate and try to keep guys fresh. If we’re playing well and getting off the field, and they don’t have to rotate, then we’re going to keep our good guys out there”.
That’s typically what has happened in most years of Heyward’s career as a starter, but one would hope that they have the depth now to accommodate that somewhat more effectively. A trio of young linemen in Keeanu Benton, DeMarvin Leal, and Isaiahh Loudermilk, plus veteran Armon Watts, are on the roster behind the above-named starters and Montravius Adams.
The trick with San Francisco is figuring out the numbers and personnel. As Austin alluded to, the 49ers run a lot of heavy personnel, but they do so in a variety of ways that do not necessarily make a heavy counter the best option. The Steelers will definitely need their athletes for this game.
