Football is the ultimate team sport. Sometimes one player can be responsible for wrecking a play all on their own, but all eleven players have to be completing their assignments for sustained success. One weak link can foil the efforts of the other ten guys. Whether that is a linebacker or defensive lineman being out of position and leaving a cutback lane or a defensive back blowing his coverage, it can be detrimental to the unit overall to have one player who is consistently falling short. So, who is the weak link right now on the Steelers defense?
Up until earlier this week, it was going to be whomever the Steelers decided to put at slot corner. Nothing against Beanie Bishop Jr. or Josiah Scott, but the slot corner position was a huge question mark, and subpackage football is far too important in today’s game for that to be the case. Now, they have reunited with CB Cam Sutton to upgrade the outlook at that position.
The point I am trying to make is that they really don’t have a true weak link anymore on the defense, which could mean great things for the 2024 season. Solid secondary play gives the pass rush more time to get home and vice versa. Strong defensive line play frees up the linebackers to make plays both in the run game and in certain blitz scenarios. Those synergies have a chance to come into play if all 11 players are at least average to above average.
But if you were forced to choose who the weak link is, who would it be? To me, it comes down to one of four possible players.
Larry Ogunjobi
Last offseason, the Steelers gave Ogunjobi a three-year, $28.75 million extension. There is little argument to be made that he has lived up to his price tag. He played 767 defensive snaps, the most he had logged since 2019 with the Cleveland Browns.
He had 43 total tackles, 21 solo tackles, three tackles for loss, three sacks, eight quarterback hits, and 35 total pressures. To put that into perspective, former Steelers DL Armon Watts had 16 total pressures in just 28 percent of the team’s defensive snaps. Pro Football Focus gave Ogunjobi a 59.2 overall grade for the season, including a 53.2 grade against the run. His three tackles for loss were a career low. The Steelers could probably get that type of production from Dean Lowry if they started him all 17 games, and he costs less than half of Ogunjobi’s average annual value.
He is viewed through the lens of being a $9 million-plus player, which he clearly has not lived up to. Now, on the wrong side of 30 years old, is he suddenly going to turn things around? Probably not, but if he is your weakest link then the defense is probably in a good spot overall.
Cam Sutton
If Sutton can play like he did in his last season with the Steelers in 2022, then he will not end up being the weak link. But his play with the Detroit Lions last year paints a different picture.
In 2023, he remained pretty effective against the run, but his coverage skills saw a sharp decline. He was charted by PFF as allowing 60 receptions on 89 targets into his coverage for a coverage grade of 53.9 and a passer rating allowed of 113.9. He was in a new defensive system for the first time since entering the NFL, and he was playing significantly more on the outside than he ever did in Pittsburgh. There is a chance that moving back to a familiar system and kicking back inside to the slot will solve his 2023 woes, but he played 99 percent of the Lions’ defensive snaps and had just one interception and five pass breakups.
His addition is an upgrade over whatever else they were going to try in the slot, so I don’t want to paint this as a bad move overall. But in an otherwise solid defense, he has a chance to be the weak link.
DeShon Elliott
I have one big concern with DeShon Elliott’s fit with the Steelers. He has been primarily used as a free safety throughout his career and is going to be asked to play strong safety and closer to the line of scrimmage in a lot of different circumstances. He has 1,856 career snaps at free safety compared to 846 as a box safety. When he first signed, I completed a film room on his play and came away pretty confident that he has what it takes, but a slight role change for him could lead to growing pains on top of the usual process of learning a new defense.
Donte Jackson
I am probably higher on Jackson than most people are as the starter opposite Joey Porter Jr. For one, the Steelers have had their eyes on Jackson dating back to his college days, so they clearly feel like he fits the system well. His ball skills are very good, and he provides some much-needed speed to the secondary. That being said, he has had a very high number of injuries throughout his career that have caused him to either miss time or play at less than 100 percent effectiveness. He also has some penalty issues, though they have been less of an issue lately.
If Porter is able to pick up where he left off with being a lockdown corner, then teams are going to test Jackson a whole lot throughout the season. How he holds up could decide how good this secondary is overall.
