Entering Year 3 in the NFL, Pittsburgh Steelers’ defensive lineman DeMarvin Leal finds himself under quite a bit of pressure as he’s seemingly entering a make-or-break situation with the Black and Gold.
After a disappointing season that reportedly saw him show up to training camp overweight and then never quite putting it all together in Year 2, the Steelers made some additions along the defensive line with rookie sixth-round pick Logan Lee and veteran free agent Dean Lowry, putting Leal behind the 8-ball a bit.
For defensive line coach Karl Dunbar though, there is still a belief in Leal. Speaking with reporters last week during mandatory minicamp, Dunbar stated that Leal has his “professional footing” underneath him now and understands what the Steelers are trying to do defensively in the trenches.
“I think he’s understanding what we’re doing and he’s maturing,” Dunbar said of Leal, according to video via the Post-Gazette on YouTube. “He’s a young man. We got him young out Texas A&M and he’s starting to get his professional footing. And I think that’s the most important thing for his maturation process.”
It was a bit disappointing to hear the report from the Post-Gazette’s Ray Fittipaldo that Leal showed up to training camp out of shape and overweight entering Year 2, which was set up to be a big breakout for him.
But looking closer at it, even if he was out of shape and overweight, he was really good in the preseason, recording a sack and generating three pressures in 38 snaps in three games. Then, early in the season he was involved in the rotation, playing 26 snaps against the 49ers, 39 snaps against Cleveland in Week 2, recording a sack in the win, and 33 snaps in Week 3 against the Las Vegas Raiders on the road.
After that, Leal saw 21, 23, 14 and 24 snaps in his next four games even though he was inactive in Week 5 against Baltimore.
Things fell apart from there as Leal finished the season as a healthy scratch the final three regular season games and in the playoffs as he clearly fell out of the rotation entirely.
Head coach Mike Tomlin stated after the season that Leal had some work to do to become a contributor for the Steelers, which was alarming to hear. But after hearing from Dunbar, it sounds like Leal is in a good spot and shouldn’t be forgotten about along the defensive line.
Development isn’t linear. Leal might have taken an extra year to figure it out.
With his skill set, if he did figure it out this offseason and can become a true contributor for the Steelers, that would be quite the storyline.
