Now that the Pittsburgh Steelers’ 2023 season is getting underway after the team finished above .500 but failing to make the postseason last year, we turn our attention to the next chapter of Steelers football and everything that entails. One thing that it means is that some stock evaluations are going to start taking on more specific contexts as we get into the season, reflecting more immediate plusses and minus rather than trends over long periods. The nature of the evaluation, whether short-term or long-term, will be noted in the reasoning section below.
Player: OLB Alex Highsmith
Stock Value: Up
Reasoning: For the second time this season, the veteran outside linebacker registered a sack and an interception in the same game. He is only the second player to accomplish that twice in 2023, and the sixth player in Steelers history out of 55 total instances.
Alex Highsmith didn’t have much of an impact game last Saturday against the Cincinnati Bengals in terms of volume of statistics, but he certainly made his moments count. Officially, he registered two statistics: a seven-yard sack and an interception. His name is not credited with an official statistic on any of his 45 other snaps played in the Steelers’ 34-11 win.
That’s not to say that he didn’t play a good all-around game. As our Josh Carney took a look at earlier in the week, he put together a complete game even if he wasn’t at the heart of every gang tackle on the field that day.
Highsmith isn’t going to finish this season with the sack total that he was aiming for, still sitting at seven with two games left to play. He had more than double that last season when he should have been named to the Pro Bowl but was left off.
But while he hasn’t been as successful converting his pressures into sacks this season—and issue that he also had in 2021—he has really been every bit as good this year. His increased work in coverage, which has led to two interceptions, hasn’t hurt.
Indeed, this second interception was much more impressive, not coming off a ricochet. He simply made a great read in coverage to jump a pass that was within his zone and showed strong hands to complete the play.
It marked his second game of the year with both a sack and an interception, just the 55th instance in NFL history in which a player has managed to do that twice in a single season. He is the second player to do it this year, the other being Antoine Winfield Jr.
In fact, it’s not at all uncommon for Steelers to do it, as six of the 55 prior instances too place in the Black and Gold. The first was Mike Merriweather, who did it twice in 1984, and then did it again two years later in 1986. He is one of only seven players to have done it multiple times. His six total such career games are tied for the fourth-most in NFL history.
Also achieving the feat twice in a single season in team history were Rod Woodson in 1994, Mike Logan in 2001, Joey Porter Sr. in 2006, and LaMarr Woodley in 2010. That’s some pretty solid company, and a mixture of edge rushers and defensive backs. Jack Lambert and Harvey Clayton each did it once in their careers.
