The Pittsburgh Steelers were quite excited to land Wisconsin product Keeanu Benton in the second round of the 2023 NFL Draft, adding a versatile, powerful defensive lineman with a high ceiling to a group with some high-profile veterans like Cameron Heyward and Larry Ogunjobi.
Though Benton wasn’t expected to have a huge role as a rookie this season, injuries forced him onto the field. Benton played 483 snaps in his rookie season, grading out at 74.8 overall from Pro Football Focus.
In his rookie season, Benton consistently found himself among the highest-graded rookies from the advanced analytics website before ultimately falling off late in the season. Despite the struggles late in the year, the Steelers and head coach Mike Tomlin remain very high on Benton.
During his year-end press conference Thursday, Tomlin stated that Benton is “capable of being dominant” for the Steelers, “sooner rather than later.”
“It’s interesting. I just had an exit interview with him. Really excited about the prospects of his future. He’s really talented. I think he’s capable of being dominant, sooner rather than later,” Tomlin stated to reporters, according to video via the Steelers’ YouTube page. “And so, the question is how quickly can we make that happen, and what are our roles in doing so?
“And so, we just had a real good conversation about what that looks like foundationally and how do we build.”
Benton is a supremely talented player, one who flashed that talent throughout his rookie season, both from a run-defense perspective and from a pass-rushing perspective.
The pass-rush piece of Benton’s game was more of a surprise than anything considering that he wasn’t asked to rush the passer much at Wisconsin and didn’t produce much in that area. In the NFL though, he showed right away that he has all the tools to be a great defensive lineman.
On the season, Benton generated 22 pressures on just 270 pass rush-reps, grading out at an 80.0 overall from PFF. He had seven quarterback hits and one sack on the season, which came in Week Three on the road against the Las Vegas Raiders.
With the Steelers aging in the trenches defensively — Cameron Heyward just completed his 13th NFL season and Larry Ogunjobi will enter the 2024 season at 30 years old — the Steelers need Benton to find that consistency in his game, take that next step forward and be a key piece up front.
There is the belief he can be a dominant force. The tape shows he has that potential. Now, as Tomlin stated, it’s all about growth and development for Benton.
