The Pittsburgh Steelers entered the season with a three-man rotation at inside linebacker. They’ll again have one in Sunday’s game against the Cleveland Browns. It’s just going to be a much different-looking lineup.
Speaking to reporters Thursday, DC Teryl Austin said the Steelers will use three players at inside linebacker this weekend: Elandon Roberts, Mark Robinson, and Mykal Walker. That’s according to The Athletic’s Mike DeFabo, who tweeted the news a short time ago.
Courtesy of the team, here’s the full quote from Austin.
“We have some guys. Mark [Robinson] who has been here,” Austin told reporters. “And then we got Mykal [Walker], who’s got NFL experience got. A 100 tackle type guy…he’s a 100 tackle guy and he’s played a lot of football games. We’ll kind of lean on those three and try to get the most out of those three and try to play to their skill sets.”
Pittsburgh entered the season with a three-man group consisting of Cole Holcomb, Kwon Alexander, and Roberts. Over the last two weeks, two have been lost for the season. Holcomb went down with a severe knee injury in Week Nine’s game against the Tennessee Titans, taking friendly fire after S Keanu Neal collided with him. In Week 10, Alexander tore his Achilles – the second time in his career it’s happened – while changing directions covering a Green Bay Packers player in the end zone.
It only leaves Roberts as part of the “original three.” After Alexander went down, Roberts logged nearly every snap the rest of the game. The only time he was off the field, Pittsburgh’s defense gave up a 35-yard touchdown on 3rd and 16. Robinson saw his snap count jump most substantially. A second-year thumper, he had logged only four defensive snaps this season prior to the Packers game. Now, he figures to play in base and at least some nickel packages the rest of the season.
Walker is the team’s newest addition, signed to the practice squad late last month. While he’s new to Pittsburgh, he’s not new to the NFL. A former fourth-round pick, he notched over 100 tackles for the Atlanta Falcons last year. Walker will either be elevated off the practice squad or signed to the team’s 53-man roster. Austin’s comments leave out Tariq Carpenter, elevated off the practice squad last week, who dressed and logged one tackle on special teams.
The exact roles each will occupy isn’t yet known. Robinson and Roberts are best playing the run and coming downhill and aren’t nearly as equipped to play the pass. Perhaps that’s where Walker will come in, seeing action on dime packages and in obvious pass situations. But communication trumps everything and Roberts will be at least one Steelers wearing the green dot. The Steelers will sacrifice a bit of athleticism in order for everyone to be on the same page. The only touchdowns the defense allowed Sunday were the play after Alexander went down and the play where Roberts came off the field.
Their biggest challenges will be stopping the Browns’ run game, something they’ll lean on heavily with rookie QB Dorian Thompson-Robinson replacing the injured Deshaun Watson. They’ll also have to match up against TE David Njoku, who could be DTR’s favorite target. In Thompson-Robinson’s lone start of the season back in Week Four, Njoku led the Browns in targets and receptions. Knowing Cleveland, it will also likely use plenty of empty sets out of heavy personnel to spread out Pittsburgh’s base defense and challenge this group of inside linebackers. They’ll have to answer the call for Pittsburgh to win this game, sweep the Browns, and become serious AFC North contenders.
