The Pittsburgh Steelers’ defense has suffered a bunch of key injuries this year, and the latest position group to get the injury bug is the inside linebackers. Cole Holcomb went down in Week Nine against the Tennessee Titans and will miss the rest of the season. Sunday, Kwon Alexander was injured on the opening defensive drive and did not return to the game.
Head coach Mike Tomlin described his injury as a “serious lower body injury,” and Adam Schefter reported on X after the game that Alexander will miss the season with a torn Achilles.
With all of these injuries to key defensive players like Holcomb, Alexander, Minkah Fitzpatrick, and for much of the season Cam Heyward, there is an extra emphasis on communication. Second-year LB Mark Robinson was forced into action as a result of Alexander’s injury. Being at the center of the defense, the inside linebackers are relied on to be effective communicators.
“Communication is key,” Joey Porter Jr. told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette in a video posted on its YouTube channel. “With Kwon going down, we knew Mark had to step up and just be a great communicator on the field.”
Robinson was a converted running back coming out of college, so communicating isn’t something he had to do a ton of until his senior year at Ole Miss. Also, considering he played just 44 defensive snaps in the entirety of his rookie season and just four defensive snaps in 2023 prior to Week 10, this was a big ask of Robinson. He finished the game with three combined tackles. Without yet having snap-count totals available for the Packers game, it sure looked like the Steelers employed a lot of nickel and dime packages to limit Robinson’s exposure, but with two of the team’s top three inside linebackers now out for the season, Robinson needs to get up to speed quickly.
Linebacker Tariq Carpenter was recently signed to the team as a former defensive back and logged some snaps in this game as well, registering one tackle. Alexander and Holcomb were the two best options to defend the pass with Elandon Roberts being more of a downhill guy, so perhaps Carpenter might get some work in those situations given his defensive back background moving forward.
