Especially on the defensive side of the football, all 11 players must work in tandem to limit negative plays. Individual efforts can wreck a play, but all 11 players must complete their assignments to have sustained success. Last season, there was a pretty noticeable imbalance on the Steelers’ defense by the end of the season, with seven different inside linebackers and six different safeties starting games. Players were playing out of position, like Patrick Peterson at safety, and the Pittsburgh Steelers defense was relying on guys signed off the practice squad to fill out their roster.
They filled in admirably at times, but it definitely took its toll on the overall performance of the unit. They managed to end the season as the seventh-best scoring defense at 18.4 points per game allowed, but they were considerably worse at allowing yards with 342.1 yards per game allowed. A big part of that was the health of the group, but they were also lacking some of the necessary personnel to make things work.
OLB coach Denzel Martin was asked how the offseason additions to strengthen the middle of the Steelers’ defense will help his group of edge rushers during one of the minicamp practices a couple of weeks ago.
“Man, you get that middle push, that changes a lot for us,” Martin said in a video posted by Post-Gazette Sports on YouTube. “Because a lot of teams will max protect us on the edge. We know that. We’re not running from that. We know we getting two on the edges every week so they can get a pass off. So the better we get interior—which we are—we got the best D-line coach in the world. Karl Dunbar, nobody’s better than that guy. And what he teaches the guys on the insides and on the edges, it’s just gonna help us get better.”
There are many reasons to think the Steelers defensive line will take a step forward this year. Cameron Heyward is back to being healthy, and Keeanu Benton is entering his second year with a transformed body to take the next step in his career. That alone should make a huge difference in getting interior pressure. Benton only had one sack, but he had several plays that probably could have resulted in a sack if he was a split-second quicker at finishing.
Interior pressure can force the quarterback out of the pocket and right into the laps of the Steelers’ elite edge tandem of T.J. Watt and Alex Highsmith. Pair the defensive line upgrades with the additions of ILB Patrick Queen, SS DeShon Elliott, and rookie ILB Payton Wilson, and the spine of the Steelers’ defense should be much stronger than it was a season ago.
