The Steelers have made several acquisitions and hires this offseason that give hints on what’s the come next season.
The offense has stolen most of the headlines after adding Russell Wilson and Justin Fields to an Arthur Smith-led unit, which seems to point towards more ground and pound to go along with heavy play-action.
But what about the defense? The Steelers have made several moves on that side of the ball that seem to tip their hand on their 2024 schematic plans, or at least, that’s what Pro Football Focus’ Sam Monson thinks.
On a recent PFF NFL Show, Monson and his co-host graded each team’s offseason moves so far this season, highlighting how it may be setting them up for 2024. For the Pittsburgh, Monson says the team seems poised to move to an even heavier man-scheme next season.
“Generally this defense seems to be pivoting towards man coverage,” said Monson. “They got rid of Patrick Peterson effectively because he can’t play man coverage anymore. Joey Porter Jr. a year ago was a man coverage specialist. Donte Jackson, who they acquired this offseason, is better in man coverage than zone coverage and Patrick Queen theoretically gives you the man coverage ability to go one-on-one with athletes out of the backfield or tight ends.”
According to Statmuse, last season the Steelers ranked eighth in man coverage.
That seems to tail off slightly from the team’s pace a few games earlier in the season where the team ran the sixth-most man coverage (32.2%) in the NFL through 14 Weeks.
Peterson, as Monson mentioned, notably struggled in man coverage during his one season in Pittsburgh. In 2023, Peterson played 683 snaps, lining up in man 31% of the time. That earned him a grade of 32.1. Significantly lower than the league average among starters.
Peterson’s struggles eventually led to his eventual shift to a hybrid defensive back, the eight-time Pro Bowler logging time at safety, corner and nickel. While not great, he proved to be useful in the back half of the season. However, his man coverage abilities still left much to be desired.
Donte Jackson on the other hand excelled, grading out at an 81.4, well above the league average. Perhaps that’s why Jackson said Mike Tomlin had been after him for “years” after the Steelers acquired him in a trade with the Carolina Panthers.
“Coach Tomlin, he was on me a lot coming out of college, and a lot when I was getting ready to sign my second contract”, Dale Lolley quotes Jackson as saying after joining the Steelers. “They really showed they wanted [me] for years and years now. I’m finally getting to be here.”
The Steelers similarly had a long-rumored interest in their other splash defensive acquisition this offseason in Queen. An athletic freak, Queen has flexed his chops in coverage as well, grading out on the PFF scale last season at a respectable 66.6.
While it wasn’t his main responsibility with Roquan Smith and Kyle Hamilton supporting him in Baltimore, Queen has proven to be an asset in coverage throughout his career, manning up on 23.8% of his 732 coverage snaps. In fact, he played the most coverage snaps at the position of anyone in the NFL in 2023.
Long story short, Queen is more than familiar with covering running backs and tight ends as Monson mentions.
Expect the Steelers to creep even further up into the top of the league when it comes to man coverage percentage during the 2024 NFL season.
