As a rookie, Pittsburgh Steelers DT Keeanu Benton flashed a very high ceiling. If you glance at the stat sheet, you may not be all that impressed, but he was disruptive and had several plays that were a split-second away from being sacks. Entering Year 2, there are high expectations on him as one of the hopeful building blocks of the defensive line.
DL coach Karl Dunbar spoke to the media after a minicamp practice last week and was asked about expectations for Benton in Year 2.
“I think the next step is just being consistent. He didn’t start to, what, maybe game six or seven when Montravius [Adams] got hurt,” Dunbar said in a video posted by Post-Gazette Sports on YouTube. “He’s shown steady progress the whole time. I think he’s a big guy who’s athletic, who’s powerful, and he’s smart.”
Entering the league at 6036, 309 pounds, Benton has since shed 10 pounds of fat as he has focused on getting his body in ideal shape. That extra bit of explosion could go a long way toward turning quarterback hits and pressures into sacks and tackles for loss. With just nine starts last season, a full season of starting and the ability to finish plays could mean big things for him on the stat sheet.
Last year Benton had 36 total tackles, 16 solo tackles, one tackle for loss, eight quarterback hits, two forced fumbles, two pass deflections, and just one sack. Dunbar counted seven other plays throughout his tape that could have resulted in sacks if he had finished the play.
“He left seven sacks on the field, and I mean he had help because T.J. [Watt] was getting there, too,” Dunbar said. “I think you can see his body has changed. He has a professional body because last year he did the [NFL Scouting] Combine, all the God dang Pro Days, the banquet circuit. Now he had all offseason to train his body and you can tell just by watching him run around now.”
Mike Tomlin often talks about the jump from the first to the second year for players. This is exactly what Dunbar is describing. Without the distractions of preparing for the 40-yard dash and the Combine and spending a lot of time traveling to meet with teams, players can focus on fully preparing themselves. They also know what the grind of a 17-game season is like for the first time and where their body needs to be to make that work.
As Keeanu Benton said recently after one of the spring practices, the sky is the limit.
