The Pittsburgh Steelers rebuilt their outside linebacker depth this offseason behind T.J. Watt and Alex Highsmith. While they have been fortunate in keeping the starters healthy and playing quite a high percentage of the snaps, however, the new reserves have been impressive.
As exciting as rookie Nick Herbig might be, it’s veteran Markus Golden, signed shortly after the draft, who has been the go-to rusher when one of the starters have needed a spell. And for Watt, he’s been much more than that.
“Positive energy. Positive vibes. One of the best teammates I’ve ever been around”, he told reporters yesterday about Golden, via the team’s website. “MG’s a great guy. He still has so much good football left. You talk about a guy that’s had three 10-plus seasons. Doesn’t matter if he gets one rep of 20 reps, he’s super hungry. He’s gonna make the most of it”.
The ninth-year veteran is in somewhat less familiar territory this season as a clear reserve who isn’t even a featured rotational contributor. He has played just 147 snaps so far, or 19 percent of their total defensive snaps. Yet he’s proven to be the Steelers’ best reserve rusher in years with three sacks in his limited opportunities.
He’d never played under 50 percent of the snaps in a season before, seeing as high as 916 snaps with the New York Giants in 2019. He played 781 snaps with the Arizona Cardinals just last season at age 31, where he partnered with Watt’s older brother, J.J. And T.J. acknowledged he’s picked their brains a bit this week as they prepare to face the Cardinals.
“Yeah, a little bit with MG, obviously my brother”, he said, “but it’s a new staff and stuff, so it’s hard. Some personnel-type things you can, but other than that, at this point of the season, it’s more about what we’re doing in this locker room and how we’re performing”.
The Cardinals really cleaned house after last season, moving on from both head coach Kliff Kingsbury and general manager Steve Keim. Vance Joseph is gone as defensive coordinator, replaced by Nick Rallis, who came over from the Philadelphia Eagles (where he coached under new Cardinals head coach Jonathan Gannon as defensive coordinator).
So yeah, there probably isn’t too much that Golden and J.J. Watt could relay, though they still have some mainstay presences like S Budda Baker, and of course QB Kyler Murray. The Steelers know RB James Conner very well, for obvious reasons. They’re also familiar with former divisional rival WR Marquise Brown’s work.
As for Golden, well, he’d better maintain that fraternal disposition, because the Steelers haven’t seen fit to put him on the field very often lately. He has played just 17 snaps over the past three games, during which time he has failed to record a statistic.
But he does have three sacks, 11 tackles, and three tackles for loss on the season. He has produced when given the opportunity. Who, though, is going to ask Watt or Highsmith to come off the field? Therein lies the problem. Watt has hardly come off the field in weeks and that’s not likely to change unless the offense starts blowing teams out.
