Since selecting Cameron Heyward in the first round of the 2011 NFL Draft, the Steelers have mostly built up their defensive line with later-round draft picks. They have drafted a defensive linemen every year since then except for 2017, but it has not provided the team with a promising future at the position thus far. The only players still on the roster are Isaiahh Loudermilk, DeMarvin Leal, Keeanu Benton and Logan Lee. All four of them are on their rookie contracts. Isaiahh Loudermilk, drafted in 2021, is entering a big season for his career as he will hit unrestricted free agency next March.
The Steelers very specifically wanted him in the draft, so much so that they traded away their 2022 fourth-round pick to move into the fifth round to select Loudermilk. He checked a lot of the boxes for what they look for at 6063, 274 pounds at the time (now listed at 293), and 32 5/8-inch arms. Back then, there wasn’t an urgent need to add to the group. Stephon Tuitt hadn’t retired yet and Heyward was still producing at a high level.
Tuitt would go on to play no more snaps in the NFL, sitting out the 2021 season and retiring in June of the next offseason. Loudermilk was thrust into playing about 30 percent of the team’s defensive snaps as a rookie. It wasn’t all pretty, but he did have some flashes of promise throughout that season. But the growth wasn’t as big as expected in year two, and he has seen a decline in his snap counts in each of his three seasons.
Now entering a contract year, Loudermilk knows the urgency of the situation.
“This offseason I thought to myself, ‘It’s time to get going,’” said Loudermilk in an interview with Chris Adamski of TribLive. “I am gonna do everything I can physically and mentally just to make sure I can put myself and the team in the best position possible.”
For the last two years, the Steelers have kept seven total defensive linemen on their initial 53-man roster. Heyward, Benton, Larry Ogunjobi, Montravius Adams and Dean Lowry all feel like pretty safe bets to make the cut. That theoretically leaves two open spots for Lee, Loudermilk, Leal, Breiden Fehoko, Jonathan Marshall and Jacob Slade to battle it out.
Leal was drafted higher, and more recently, than Loudermilk, but Leal finished the season last year as an inactive with Loudermilk getting the helmet on game day. That should give him the inside track, but there is no doubt that Loudermilk needs to make some strides in his development. In 16 games played, he logged just 181 defensive snaps and had just 16 total tackles, 8 solo tackles, 1 QB hit and 2 passes defensed.
“Everything’s kind of become a little bit more second nature in terms of playing,” Loudermilk said. “I can feel things and I can see things that I haven’t seen the last couple years, and I am able to get into [the play] quicker. That just comes along with it. Four years of watching NFL film and playing NFL ball, just getting the feeling of it.
“But now, it’s Year 4. It’s time for me to kind of step up and not play with any hesitation, just kind of go out and play how I know I can play.”
A lot is expected of young players in this era of football. If you look back to Heyward’s career as a young player, it wasn’t until year three and four that he started to show promise, and it wasn’t until his seventh season that he truly broke out as a top defensive linemen in the NFL. It sure would be nice for the outlook of the defensive line if one of the young guys could start to show similar improvement, but time is running out for Loudermilk, and there is no guarantee that he even makes the roster come September.
