A lot of the focus this offseason has been on the offensive side of the ball for the Pittsburgh Steelers. The novelty of having new faces at quarterback, offensive coordinator, offensive line, and wide receiver has grabbed most of the attention and been the focus of most of the conversations on how good the team will ultimately be. But the Steelers’ defense has a chance to be good—really good—and the success of the team will most likely go as they go.
Yahoo Sports senior NFL reporter Jori Epstein joined the Zero Blitz podcast on Yahoo Sports on Thursday and discussed why there should be more focus on the Steelers defense entering 2024.
“I still think that the Pittsburgh Steelers are going to succeed or fail on the basis of their defense. That’s what they’ve done for years,” Epstein said. “That’s what Mike Tomlin’s style has been. They got Patrick Queen at linebacker this year, which I thought was a great pickup. I mean, to pick him up in free agency, not only do you now get to use him to stabilize your defense, you also don’t have to worry about him twice a year stopping Najee Harris and the rest of your run game like he was doing with the Ravens.
“I think that Mike Tomlin’s consistent about .500 record has not been primarily because that offense…in recent years when he has not lost, even with teams that feel far under the radar, it’s because of that defense.”
If you look at the makeup of the defense, it should be the unit grabbing all the attention. Eight of the team’s 10 highest-paid players are on the defensive side of the ball. Excluding the two guards, who are well-paid, you could take the remaining nine starters on offense and T.J. Watt’s base salary would still outweigh their combined total.
It is a real Moneyball situation on offense. TE Pat Freiermuth will have a chance to become the highest-paid offensive player if the Steelers end up extending him this offseason as expected. The cap investment is a little misleading because nearly the entire starting offense consists of players on rookie contracts. In four year’s time the balance between offense and defense will shift dramatically with quarterbacks, offensive tackles, and receivers to pay. Russell Wilson’s veteran minimum contract is another obvious reason why the offense is eating up very little cap space.
The defense consists mostly of players in their primes. Watt, Minkah Fitzpatrick, Alex Highsmith, DeShon Elliott, and Patrick Queen are all at the point in their careers where they have the experience, but age is not yet an issue.
Then there are the young guys like Keeanu Benton and Joey Porter Jr. who are already playing great football entering their second season.
The Steelers finished with the seventh-best scoring defense in the NFL last season, allowing 18.4 per game. You would have a very hard time coming up with reasons why the group might regress. Their biggest losses were Patrick Peterson, Chandon Sullivan, Kwon Alexander, and Armon Watts. One of those players was lost to season-ending injury halfway through the season, and the others weren’t exactly major reasons for the group’s success.
They had to endure countless injuries, mostly concentrated on the inside linebacker and safety groups, and they still finished with a top-seven scoring defense. At 18.4 points per game last season, would it be unreasonable to expect that to improve by a full point or more? I don’t think so, and then you are talking about a top three or four defense in the league. The old adage that defense wins championships may be falling out of style with the rule changes and shifting landscape of the league, but both the Kansas City Chiefs and San Francisco 49ers were top-three scoring defenses last season and represented their respective conferences in the Super Bowl.
The Steelers will be playing a lot of high-caliber quarterbacks with one of the toughest schedules in the NFL, but they are equipped to handle that challenge.
