Injuries have hit the Pittsburgh Steelers hard this season, especially on the defensive side of the football.
Names like Cole Holcomb, Kwon Alexander, Keanu Neal, Cameron Heyward, and Minkah Fitzpatrick have missed time this season. All but Heyward remain out currently. That has decimated the Steelers from a depth perspective, forcing them to put new faces into the lineup on the fly, like safety Trenton Thompson, linebackers Mykal Walker and Blake Martinez, and likely names like Eric Rowe and Myles Jack this week.
Even veteran cornerback Patrick Peterson has had to moonlight in a different role, playing 30 snaps at safety in Week 15 against the Indianapolis Colts on the road after the Steelers lost safety Damontae Kazee and Fitzpatrick on back-to-back snaps due to an ejection and an injury.
Now, moving forward with Fitzpatrick out for Saturday’s matchup against the Cincinnati Bengals and Kazee suspended for the rest of the season (for now), more new faces are going to step into the lineup. That’s made things challenging for the Steelers defensively, according to Peterson. Pittsburgh hasn’t been able to run certain things they wanted to when they were fully healthy, he said on the latest episode of his podcast “All Things Covered” with former Steelers’ cornerback and cousin Bryant McFadden.
“…We have a bunch of guys plug-and-play guys right now, man. We have all the faith and the confidence within them, but it’s still some things that we have to work through with them to get them all aboard with us because it’s certain things that we can’t run that we had when we had guys like Cole [Holcomb],” Peterson said during an appearance on the latest episode of his podcast.
The Steelers do have a bunch of plug-and-play guys, and that will only increase in Week 16 against the Bengals, especially in the secondary.
Safety Trenton Thompson didn’t practice Tuesday due to a neck injury he suffered against the Colts. A guy like Rowe is likely going to start opposite Thompson on Saturday, marking yet another new face to the defense. Walker and Martinez will continue to rotate with Mark Robinson next to Elandon Roberts, too.
It shouldn’t be a surprise that the Steelers won’t — or aren’t — able to run some things they were able to run when they were fully healthy. That’s the attrition component that head coach Mike Tomlin talks about often.
Tomlin even stated Monday during his press conference that the Steelers need to adjust the scheme to the personnel that they currently have.
Peterson’s comments up with Tomlin’s.
“There’s certain things that we can’t do with the different guys that we have in the lineup right now,” Peterson added. “So yeah, it is a task for the defensive coordinator and the play callers and the shot callers who are in a position to make sure that we utilize the athletic ability and the guys who we have on the roster, put them in the best position possible to be successful because that’s all we have at this point.”
The guys on the roster are all that the Steelers have at this point. That much is true. There’s only so much the Steelers can do at this point from a personnel standpoint. Therefore, they need to adjust the scheme to best suit the players on the roster currently.
So far, they haven’t exactly done that, putting guys like Walker and Thompson in tough spots at times. But at least Tomlin acknowledged it this week. We’ll see if anything improves there, starting on Saturday when the Steelers might be at their most depleted defensively, especially on the backend, as they have been all season long.
