Last season for the Pittsburgh Steelers, the inside linebacker position reached a dire situation with season-ending injuries in back-to-back weeks to Cole Holcomb and Kwon Alexander. Then Elandon Roberts battled through some injuries, which forced him to miss a game. At the time, Mike Tomlin compared it to losing the quarterback of the defense.
Inside linebackers wear many hats, but one of their primary responsibilities being in the center of the defense is taking calls from the sideline and communicating to the rest of the team to make sure everybody is on the same page.
So far in the 2024 free agency legal tampering window, the Steelers have upgraded both the offensive and defensive quarterback with Russell Wilson and Patrick Queen.
Dan Orlovsky discussed these moves on Tuesday’s episode of NFL Live on ESPN.
“One of the things you do in free agency is also, where are we weak? How do we find ways to improve our weaknesses? Pittsburgh went into this free agency period yesterday with two glaring weaknesses: quarterback and inside linebacker,” Orlovsky said. “They have gotten a quarterback and one of the best inside linebackers in football.”
One thing the Steelers have done well over the years is adding for needs in free agency. That way, once the draft comes around, they don’t have to reach for needs and can take players higher up on their board regardless of position.
Two days into free agency, they have done just that: quarterback, inside linebacker, and punter. All three were obvious needs for the team, and now, while they may still address the positions in the draft, they are much less pressing and can be looked at in later rounds.
“If you’re Mike Tomlin and you’re sitting there going, okay, if both of these guys hit with the way that we want them to…the conversation, will this be the first losing season? That won’t be it,” Orlovsky said. “It’ll be, hey, we can maybe win this thing. Even with Baltimore. Even with Cincinnati. Because the complete element of the football team in Pittsburgh is back.”
The Steelers have a lot of young talent. The offense was among the youngest in the league last season, and many of those young pieces will expect to take the next step. The defense is loaded with star power and players who are paid at or near the top of their respective positions across the league.
Yeah, this is the time of year when every team and every fanbase is sitting there thinking Super Bowl thoughts. For the Steelers, that did not seem like a remote possibility just days ago. Now there are national media folk starting to utter those words.
