The Pittsburgh Steelers have had a bit of a revolving door at inside linebacker recently. They started off the season with a solid three-man rotation, but injuries to Cole Holcomb and Kwon Alexander have forced a number of new names into action. Elandon Roberts started off the season playing about 50 percent of snaps in any given game but has been forced into a full-time starting role.
He played 95 percent of snaps against the Green Bay Packers in Week Ten and did not come off the field once against the Cleveland Browns last week. The 140 snaps he logged over those two games were roughly the same as his last five games’ worth of snaps combined.
Roberts spoke to the Pittsburgh media after Wednesday’s practice about the increase in playing time.
“Yeah, it’s cool man,” Roberts said in a video posted on the team website. “It is November football, so you could play 50 percent of snaps, but your body still going to be numb.”
At age 29, the extra playing time can be difficult to pull off, especially this late in the season. The Steelers need him to be that guy and on Sunday he was.
“The big thing for me is just being out there and being able to make plays for my teammates and my defense,” Roberts continued. “Just showing the guys that they can count on me…Sunday, I guess I had a lot of tackles, but it could have been anybody in the defense. I still would’ve just done my job and made sure that I did my assignment to put our defense where they needed to be.”
Roberts had a career-high 15 tackles against the Browns, including two tackles for loss. He was showing up all over the tape and played really well. Prior to the injuries, Holcomb and Alexander handled most of the passing down situations, but Roberts more than held his own in coverage. Pro Football Focus gave him an 83.3 coverage grade on Sunday.
He was seeing the field well and his quick mental processing was consistently getting him in position to make plays. He just views it as making the plays that come to him and staying true to his assignment. S Minkah Fitzpatrick leads the team in tackles more often than not, so with him also being out on top of the ILB injuries, Roberts is becoming that catch-all for the defense.
He is also being counted on to wear the green dot, the helmet marker that signifies he is taking communications from his coaches on the sideline. With all of the injuries, and with the Steelers playing in hostile road environments for the first time this season, communication has been a key component of his job.
“We just gotta keep it going. Communication never gets old, and we just gotta keep tying it together.”
Against the Packers, he primarily had second-year ILB Mark Robinson beside him. Last week, he mostly had Mykal Walker next to him in his first start with the team. And it remains to be seen what this week could look like. A mix of Walker and Robinson? Or perhaps adding in newly-signed veteran ILB Blake Martinez into the rotation.
Roberts has taken the challenge by the horns and appears ready for whatever is asked of him moving forward. He is playing great football.
