Making his Pittsburgh Steelers debut Friday night against the Houston Texans, rookie linebacker Payton Wilson received quite a bit of playing time, logging 44 snaps defensively.
He led all defenders in playing time in the 20-12 loss to the Texans, and in those 44 snaps showed quite a bit of promise.
In fact, in two of the first three plays from scrimmage that required a tackle, Wilson made the play, including a tackle for loss on the first play from scrimmage.
His athleticism, speed, instincts and overall range were on display throughout the night in what was a very promising showing. There was plenty of good from Wilson, but some bad in the process, which is to be expected for a young player making the jump from college to the pros.
On the night, Wilson graded out at a 52.5 overall from Pro Football Focus, including a 70.5 against the run, but a 42.1 against the pass. He missed two tackles, based on charting here at Steelers Depot.
To see how he did overall, I dove into the film. Let’s check out how Wilson did in his NFL debut.
Right away, as I mentioned earlier and as is well-known at this point, Wilson made a splash on his first snap.
He does a great job of diagnosing the run quickly, sliding to his left to stretch things out horizontally. Once he reads run, he jumps inside of the climbing tackle to get around the block, stays clean, and gets his hands on Houston running back Dameon Pierce, getting him to the ground for the TFL.
He lets Pierce know about it, too, bringing an edge in the process.
Two plays later, Wilson makes another run stop near the line of scrimmage.
He works downhill reading run and fills his gap, taking Pierce on in the hole.
Wilson does a good job of staying square, forcing Pierce inside where he has help, wrapping him up in the process for the stop. Sound reps from the rookie, who played under control here. Very positive sign.
One of the big concerns with Wilson coming out of college was his ability to shed or avoid blocks. With his athletic profile and the speed and athleticism he brings to the table, avoiding blocks shouldn’t be much of an issue.
The North Carolina State product slipped underneath and around blocks early Friday night, allowing himself to make plays.
Here against the run, Wilson reads it quickly and works downhill under control, getting eyes on the climbing lineman. You can see the athleticism and explosion he has in tight to jump easily out of the way of the block, all while working inside in one fluid motion to take him to the running back for the stop.
Where Wilson struggled on Friday night was in coverage, which was a bit of a surprise. He’s had a strong training camp in that aspect, but Houston went right at him and had a ton of success.
However, he started off strong in that area of the game in the first half.
Great job here by Wilson to come downhill on the play-action fake and still be able to read it and change directions in a hurry, getting into the flat in the hip pocket of the receiver working across the formation through traffic.
Wilson’s positioning here makes it a tough throw on the move for the quarterback, who has to lead the receiver and cannot afford to put it on the receiver or even slightly behind due to Wilson’s positioning. Ultimately, it winds up as a drop, but it showed Wilson’s ability to change directions and open up and run in a hurry in coverage. That showed up on tape in college, too.
In space in man coverage on a tight end though, and on a whip route, Wilson was cooked by TE Cade Stover.
He just appears a bit overzealous here with Stover, wanting to drive on the potential out route, selling out immediately to run with Stover. Instead of staying in the hip pocket and trying to feel Stover, Wilson tries to do too much here. He overplays the route and leaves a ton of space for Stover to set him up.
The rookie tight end won in a big way and let Wilson know about it.
That play was a sign of things to come for Wilson in coverage, generating some concern with him looking into the backfield too much and losing track of his guy in space.
Yes, it turns into a scramble drill, but Wilson takes his eyes off Robert Woods for just a split second, losing a feel for him after getting beat inside.
You can see Wilson looking at Davis Mills as he steps up and starts to scramble. He loses all sense of Woods’ presence, leaving the veteran receiver wide open cutting across the middle. Again, he just appears a bit overzealous here, trying to do too much in the moment.
He just has to stick to his assignment and try to keep in phase, rather than coming downhill early and losing feel for his receiver. It’s a tough play and a tough call, considering the Steelers appeared to be in man. But Wilson has to trust his teammates here and do his job.
Fortunately for Wilson, he bounced back in the second half, playing well in the run game again.
Really nice rep here against the run, staying relatively clean off a block from the left tackle trying to climb to the second level.
Wilson stays square to the line of scrimmage and stretches out the run. Though he doesn’t make the tackle, he forces the running back to the sideline and out of space, limiting him to a short gain.
That’s a very good job of creating contact with the blocker, staying clean and square and stretching things. Well-played rep from Wilson.
Overall, there were some concerns in coverage, which is to be expected for a rookie linebacker in the NFL. It happens to the best of them. Better to get the struggles in coverage out now in meaningless football in the grand scheme of things.
But the flashes against the run were really promising. Wilson was flying around, making plays and showing just how his athletic profile will translate to the NFL at linebacker.
It was a very encouraging night overall with the good far outweighing the bad.
It’ll be very interesting to see how Wilson builds off it on Saturday night against the Buffalo Bills.
