Following a fast and furious offseason that saw a number of new faces and big names join the Pittsburgh Steelers, things are really looking up ahead of the 2024 season for the Black and Gold.
The offense is improved under center with Russell Wilson and Justin Fields, along with coordinator Arthur Smith calling the shots and a rebuilt offensive line. But the real excitement for many with the Steelers resides on the defensive side of the football, where the Steelers made some significant additions, including linebacker Patrick Queen and cornerback Donte Jackson.
On paper, the Steelers’ defense has a chance to be exceptional this season. It was already very good last season. It could be even better this season.
However, The Athletic Football Show’s Robert Mays and Derrik Klassen have some concerns, particularly in the secondary and with depth in the defensive front.
“They are playing an NPC [non-player character] at nickel and that is a huge concern to me. I think their other safety side, it’s a little bit concerning, and I really don’t love a lot of their depth up front,” Klassen said of the Steelers’ defense, leaving them out of the top 10 entering the season, according to video via the show’s YouTube page. “Their starters are really good, but the depth is concerning to me. If DeMarvin Leal has to play snaps again, I think that’s a big, big problem. And then even some of their guys on the edge, you know, Nick Herbig is nice, but he’s kind of small.
“So this, to me, was just, I think if you pull out one of the Jenga blocks, things could get a little bit tricky. But I still think they’ll be good.”
The Jenga blocks in that comment from Klassen would presumably be guys like T.J. Watt, Cameron Heyward, Minkah Fitzpatrick, Joey Porter Jr., and even Alex Highsmith.
Safety outside of Fitzpatrick is a slight concern. DeShon Elliott should be solid in a box role, but Damontae Kazee is a real concern as that second or third safety who will see the field often. He wasn’t very good in 2023, and he’s back for the final year of his deal in a key role.
At slot cornerback, the Steelers are looking at rookie undrafted free agent Beanie Bishop Jr. or Grayland Arnold being the starting slot in Atlanta on Sept. 8, especially with veteran Cameron Sutton suspended the first eight games of the season due to his offseason arrest.
Sutton might solidify the position in the back end of the season, but it’s a real concern the first eight weeks of the year.
Depth up front is concerning too, especially in the trenches. Dean Lowry is a solid veteran to have behind Cameron Heyward and Larry Ogunjobi, and Montravius Adams continues to play well, but are they guys you want in a starting role in case of injury? That seems like a stretch.
But the Steelers have done well in the past navigating depth issues, especially in 2023 when Fitzpatrick and Heyward missed a big chunk of the season.
The Steelers finished the year sixth in scoring defense, allowing just over 19 points per game, which just so happened to be their best showings in the numbers and the league ranking since the 2020 season. The Steelers also tied for eighth in takeaways with 27 and fourth with 16 interceptions.
Those numbers were especially impressive in the red zone, where Pittsburgh’s defense was key in keeping the score down throughout games. The Steelers’ defense was fifth-best in the NFL at 46 percent in the red zone.
Not only that, Pittsburgh took the football away in the red zone, rather than just holding teams to fields goals. Austin’s defense had eight takeaways in the red zone, which was the most in the NFL last season, and the most by any defense in the NFL since the 2016 Kansas City Chiefs forced 10 red zone turnovers.
That work they did last season with all of the injuries and the new pieces they had to plug and play is a big reason why Mays is higher on them than Klassen is, keeping the Steelers inside his top 10.
“And maybe this is giving them too much of the benefit of the doubt, but part of me just thinks that they figured it out with huge questions in the secondary before,” Mays said of the Steelers’ defense. “So now you have Donte Jackson in there now, Cam Sutton’s gonna be suspended for half of the season. Maybe he can play nickel in the back half of the year. I just, I trust them to figure it out in that area, specifically…But I just think the front has a chance to dominate games and they can do enough on the back end. And if that front stays healthy and [Keeanu] Benton takes the step forward that we think he’s going to, you can buy that with Minkah and enough in the back seven.
“It’s just hard for me to put that many teams over them to keep them off of a list like this.”
On paper, the Steelers are a top-10 defense. They got better compared to the talent they had last season, particularly at inside linebacker and cornerback. That’s huge.
They have the right coaching in place, too, with defensive coordinator Teryl Austin quietly being a top-10 coordinator on the defensive side of the ball in the league as well as Mike Tomlin overseeing things.
Based on what they were able to do last year schematically, and what they added this offseason, the Steelers’ defense should be even better. Hopefully the Steelers are able to avoid the injury issues they had defensively last season, which will allow them to be even better with key players in the lineup, too.
Then, they’ll easily be a top-10 defensive unit, possibly even top 5.
Check out the full conversation between Mays and Klassen below.
