There has been no official word from the team, but we can reasonably assume that Pittsburgh Steelers ILB Cole Holcomb suffered a season-ending injury toward the end of the first quarter on Thursday night against the Tennessee Titans.
Signed as an unrestricted free agent to a three-year, $18 million contract, he was meant to be the prime mover in the middle of that defense. Through the first half of the season, he was largely successful to that end, and growing more comfortable as he played more.
While he’ll likely be back next year—they could cut him and save over $3 million in salary cap space—someone is needed to answer the bell for the remainder of the season. How prescient it feels in hindsight that the Steelers signed Kwon Alexander just after the start of training camp.
The last of the trilogy of free agent linebackers, along with Elandon Roberts, Alexander is a player who is somewhere in between, a heavier hitter than Holcomb but with more range and coverage skills than Roberts.
“We feel like we’ve got three starter-capable guys” at the inside linebacker position, head coach Mike Tomlin reiterated on Thursday after beating the Titans, or at least they did before Holcomb’s injury. “They’re all alphas in the middle” is how OLB T.J. Watt described that group.
And there’s no reason they shouldn’t be. All of them are battle-hardened veterans. They have played in different roles and in different systems and seen quite a bit of what the game of football has to offer at the higher level. Even to a certain extent how that game has changed from when they first entered the league.
Holcomb was brought in for $6 million per season, while Roberts earned a two-year, $7 million deal. Alexander, however, only a one-year contract for the veteran-minimum salary, qualifying for a veteran salary-benefit contract that comes with a reduced cap hit.
Yet in eight games, he has already played 353 snaps, on pace to play more than he did last season for the New York Jets in 12 starts over 17 games. He’s only technically made one start so far in Pittsburgh, but he’s on the field more often than not.
And making plays, too. He has 41 tackles with five tackles for loss. Add to that a sack, a forced fumble, and now an interception, which came on the final competitive play of Thursday’s game. It was as if to say, Cole may be down, but I’m going to keep the position in good hands.
One thing that will need to be adjusted is the assignment of the green dot. Holcomb primarily wore that, whenever he was on the field, which was about 85-90 percent of the time. Alexander should absorb a good portion of his snaps and would seem to be the next player best fit for the task. Quite an insurance policy, then, and at a bargain.
