Pittsburgh Steelers ILB Elandon Roberts has seen increased playing time in recent weeks due to injuries, and the difference has been significant. There’s no doubt he has stepped up, with a multi-sack game and a 15-tackle game under his belt in the past five weeks. He’s even played every single snap in the past two weeks after averaging about 35 percent earlier in the year.
But with Cole Holcomb and Kwon Alexander done for the season due to significant injuries, they haven’t had much of a choice. Now bringing along veterans Mykal Walker, Blake Martinez, and Myles Jack, perhaps he won’t have to play so much, but his play is giving the coaches no reason to alter their plans.
In fact, there isn’t a more impactful run defender among linebackers in the league this season. According to Pro Football Focus, he has the highest run-stop percentage in the league at 14.4 percent, the best among all linebackers with as little as 15 snaps played against the run.
Defensive “stops” are plays in which the defense prevents an offense from having a successful play. The general parameters are 40 percent of the required yardage on first down, 60 percent on second down, and 100 percent on third and fourth down, though different venues will classify them differently.
Roberts has 32 tackles against the run this season on 181 run snaps, of which 26 of them have been classified as defensive stops. He already has nine tackles for loss this year, which is just one off of his personal best for an entire season, which he set last year with the Miami Dolphins. His 26 defensive stops against the run are also the sixth-most in the league, with everyone ahead of him having played significantly more snaps.
But as he is now in a full-time role, he has the opportunity to bridge the gap and rack up more stops. The problem is, the way the games have gone, opposing teams haven’t been running the ball much against the Steelers, so he actually has just one defensive stop against the run the past two weeks.
Pittsburgh held the Cleveland Browns to just 96 rushing yards on 26 attempts, averaging 3.7 yards per carry, and that included 20 yards on three quarterback scrambles. The Cincinnati Bengals managed just 25 yards on 11 attempts, including 16 on eight rushes by RB Joe Mixon, or just two yards per attempt.
Were it not for a 40-yard run by Green Bay Packers RB A.J. Dillon, the numbers would look even better over the course of recent weeks, but there’s no question that things have tightened up significantly on a per-play basis recently.
Having DL Cameron Heyward back certainly hasn’t hurt, needless to say. Teams are not running the ball well at all when he is on the field, not that that should be surprising. But Roberts has been a key force in that area when he’s been on the field as well.
