Yet again, the Pittsburgh Steelers won the hard way. Won late, won ugly, won gritty. But a win is a win. 6-3 is 6-3. The team should enjoy their win over the Green Bay Packers Sunday afternoon. It’s not exactly a victory over the Super Bowl favorites but the NFL is a hard place to win and the Packers are a talented team. They’re just figuring out how to put it together.
For the Steelers, they have to figure out their inside linebacker position. Two weeks ago, it looked good. Cole Holcomb, Kwon Alexander, and Elandon Roberts making up a three-headed attack. All three with their own distinct skillset and Pittsburgh legitimately enjoyed having a true three-man rotation.
Fast forward to today and that’s all gone. Holcomb? Tore up his knee, out for the season. Alexander? Torn Achilles, the second of his career, and done for the year. Two brutal injuries to a pair of talented players having good seasons and helping Pittsburgh win.
What’s left? Redundancy. Elandon Roberts and Mark Robinson took over Sunday and did enough to close things out. Roberts had a good game. When he was getting downhill, anyway. Ask him to cover and you’re in trouble. Robinson is cut from a similar cloth. Aggressive, hard-nosed players who blow up the running game and are at their best going forward, not backward. Teams will know the scouting reports on how to beat those guys. Throw it over their head. That’s what Green Bay did in the fourth quarter, matching up athletic rookie TE Luke Musgrave on Roberts for a 28-yard gain.
It’s no slight on Roberts. That isn’t his game and it sure wasn’t why he was signed. Pittsburgh has just been dealt a terrible hand. There’s no solid Plan C for losing your top two and most athletic inside linebackers in a two-game span.
But Pittsburgh needs a plan. They can’t trot Roberts and Robinson out full-time and expect it to work. Those guys will still play, Roberts especially as a green dot-wearer and central communicator, but you can’t just set them and forget them. So what are their options? Again, no good ones in mid-November but here’s what they’ve got.
The Practice Squaders
Tariq Carpenter – Elevated for the Packers’ game, he might honestly be the team’s top option. A safety at Georgia Tech, he converted to inside linebacker in the pre-draft process, first shifting there at the 2022 Senior Bowl, before the Packers helped develop his game. But he admitted it wasn’t until signing to the Steelers’ practice squad in early September that he truly felt like a linebacker, adding some weight to look the part.
A great straight-line athlete coming out, Carpenter ran a 4.52 40 and jumped 39 inches in the vertical at his Pro Day. He’s not going to cover like a cornerback but he is still a big safety hybrid worth a look to see how he functions. The downside? Limited experience. He’s a second-year player with 16 career defensive snaps and if he’s playing on third downs, you’re asking a young guy you don’t know a lot about on high-leverage snaps.
Mykal Walker – Here’s someone with experience. Lots of them. A 12-game starter in 2022 for the Atlanta Falcons, he finished third on the team with 107 tackles while playing nearly three-quarters of the team’s snaps. It was sorta surprising to see him bouncing around in free agency after getting released off the Las Vegas Raiders’ practice squad in late October before Pittsburgh added them to theirs.
The question is if Walker can really add anything new to the team. Sure, he might be able to rotate and take some of the pressure off someone like Robinson, a second-year guy who hasn’t played a lot, but in terms of the pass down/coverage responsibility, I don’t know if he’s the dude.
You can also float rookie Nick Herbig to bump inside but Teryl Austin immediately dismissed it last week. Of course, now that Alexander is also out of the fold, maybe his mind has changed. Still, a midseason position/role switch for a rookie is asking a ton.
Outside Options
Numerous names to mention, too many to try and scribble down here. The trade deadline has passed but the team could look to pluck someone off a practice squad and sign to the 53-man roster or bring onto the practice squad and work the elevation game once they get up to speed. It’s hard to ask someone to come off the street and play inside linebacker for the Steelers, the responsibilities are endless, but they likely will sign someone from the outside, even if it’s just a pure reserve who never dresses.
Thinking Outside The Box – Internally
The best solution might be not trying to find another inside linebacker. But a de facto one. That could come in different forms. Safety Keanu Neal may be the most seamless fit into that role, having played true linebacker in Dallas during the 2020 season. He has some size and is best working near the line scrimmage with hit power to play in that role, again, in more of a passing down sense. He worked as the team’s dime defender/sixth DB early in the season before his role slightly adjusted with FS Minkah Fitzpatrick out.
Ideally, this works best with Fitzpatrick back in the fold. Hopefully he can get right for Week 11 against the Cleveland Browns but his status is unclear and Pittsburgh won’t rush him and risk re-injury to see the same outcome as TE Pat Freiermuth.
Neal doesn’t have to be the only option. There’s Elijah Riley, who probably should be playing more than he has, and has been in the system long enough to know how it runs. Trenton Thompson has a profile to potentially play there but his lack of experience probably doesn’t make him a viable option.
If you want to get really crazy, and I know this is a wild thought, what about DL DeMarvin Leal? A great athlete who hasn’t developed as a pass rusher and has really been stuck to base package work. He barely even played against the Packers because Pittsburgh worked in sub-packages so much. The team carved out a specific rush package with Leal from an off-ball role last season against Buffalo but we’ve seen Leal move in space and run with guys in training camp. Obviously, he may have to go back to losing some weight and you really can’t ask this guy to cover but is he any slower than Roberts? This wouldn’t be a full-time switch or anything close but could they work out another package for him? I can see it.
Anyone here would really need to know the defense and be able to communicate. Because they would be, in the role as I’m explaining it, replace Roberts and any Steelers inside linebacker, in the team’s dime package. And Pittsburgh would still need six other defensive backs on the field like they normally have. But they need to have speed and athletes on passing downs.
Final Thoughts
It’s going to be messy, difficult, and probably involve trial and error. You don’t lose your top two linebackers you’ve been rolling with since August and expect to make a seamless and easy transition. Depth and the Steelers’ scheme and creative coaching will really be tested. Let’s see what direction the team heads in.
