Now that the Pittsburgh Steelers’ 2023 season is getting underway after the team finished above .500 but failing to make the postseason last year, we turn our attention to the next chapter of Steelers football and everything that entails. One thing that it means is that some stock evaluations are going to start taking on more specific contexts as we get into the season, reflecting more immediate plusses and minus rather than trends over long periods. The nature of the evaluation, whether short-term or long-term, will be noted in the reasoning section below.
Player: ILB Cole Holcomb
Stock Value: Up
Reasoning: Although he had some issues in pass coverage, ILB Cole Holcomb had an overall solid game against the Los Angeles Rams, continuing to rack up tackles and finding himself around the football.
We knew this going into the season, but the Steelers do not have a great inside linebacker on the roster. They didn’t pay the entrance fee for getting one, but they bought several raffle tickets for the 50/50, hoping to have a reasonable chance of getting something decent.
By and large, they have, but they haven’t gotten much more than decent. Yet what they have they can function with. There might be some bend-but-don’t-break involved, but one thing we can say about this inside linebacker group is that it is more proactive than last year’s, which was more reactive and less dynamic.
As for Holcomb, his role is largely simple. He is the every-down linebacker who remains on the field 80-90 percent of the time while Elandon Roberts and Kwon Alexander mix and match behind him. He is expected to be a tackling machine, and he largely is.
He makes both the necessary tackles and the plus tackles, the plays that make a difference. Sure, somebody has to clean up a seven-yard run, or a five-yard gain on 2nd and 3, but he also plays closer to the line of scrimmage. He had four defensive stops among his eight tackles against the Rams, for example.
As far as his issues in pass coverage, some of that can be attributed to scheme. I believe, for example, WR Puka Nacua is credited with making two of his catches with Holcomb as the nearest defender in coverage, though they were not man-coverage situations.
Not that he should be absolved for his work in pass coverage, which, really, throughout his career has never seemed to quite live up to what his athleticism would indicate he’s capable of. And there are times that he shows what he’s capable of in that area. He does have a couple of passes defensed so far this year, for example. But he’s not a coverage linebacker. He’s just a linebacker who plays in coverage.
