The Pittsburgh Steelers will likely rely heavily on a star-studded defense during the 2024 season, at least early on, as the new-look offense rounds into form.
On that star-studded defense, the Steelers just so happen to have three of the top 100 players in the NFL entering the 2024 season.
At least, according to ESPN’s top 100 players rankings, which were released Monday morning. According to ESPN, the rankings were formulated based on a panel of dozens of ESPN NFL experts to rate players based on performance expectations for the 2024 season compared with their peers.
Additionally, according to ESPN, the emphasis was placed solely on the upcoming season and predicting potential greatness rather than on past performance or positional value.
In the top 100 players rankings from ESPN, the Steelers saw three players highlighted, all three of which landed on the defensive side of the football. That would be outside linebacker T.J. Watt, safety Minkah Fitzpatrick and defensive lineman Cameron Heyward.
Watt, who led the league in sacks last season with 19.0, landed at No. 10, Fitzpatrick at No. 59 overall, and Heyward checked in at No. 75.
Heyward, of course, is coming off of an injury-filled season that caused him to miss six weeks after undergoing surgery on a torn groin. Once he returned, Heyward wasn’t himself, though his overall presence was felt, especially against the run.
There are questions about Heyward’s abilities entering his age 35 season.
“After an injury-shortened 2023 season, Heyward is back and fully healthy for his 14th season,” ESPN’s Brooke Pryor writes regarding Heyward’s ranking in the top 100. “He entered the offseason seeking a contract extension that would allow him to retire a Steeler, and though the wheels are turning slowly on that deal, expect it to motivate the defensive lineman and reigning Walter Payton Man of the Year.
“Prior to his injury, Heyward put up back-to-back seasons of at least ten sacks, proving that some things do get better with age.”
When he’s healthy, Heyward remains a force. He simply wasn’t healthy last season, and it seems very unfair to say that the health issues were due to age. He had been incredibly durable and consistent for years prior to last season.
While he wants a new contract from the Steelers and wants to be a one-helmet guy for his career, it doesn’t appear that he’ll get that contract extension prior to the start of the season, though GM Omar Khan did state that he expects Heyward to be a Steeler a long time moving forward.
Along with his ranking at No. 75 overall, ESPN took a crack at projecting Heyward’s stats for the 2024 season. ESPN projects Heyward to finish with 65 tackles and just three sacks. It’s a comically low projection for a player that the only time he’s ever had three or fewer sacks as a starter in a season occurred in two injury-filled years in 2016 and last season.
Like Heyward, Fitzpatrick had a tough 2023 season. He failed to generate a turnover and dealt with multiple injuries that caused him to miss six games.
But, with some upgrades around him in the secondary, such as cornerback Donte Jackson and safety DeShon Elliott, Fitzpatrick should be able to get back to his ball-hawking ways in the Steelers’ defense.
“For the first time in his football career, Fitzpatrick failed to record a single interception in a season during the 2023 campaign,” Pryor writes of Fitzpatrick’s ranking in the top 100. “But this year, Fitzpatrick and the Steelers are determined to get back to “Minkah ball” and put the safety back in a position to make ball-hawking plays as a free safety.”
What “Minkah ball” means remains to be seen, though the belief is he’ll get back to playing more of a centerfield-type role where he can hang back, read and react, and jump routes.
That’s when he’s at his best, especially in that Robber role over the middle. Health and opportunity will be key.
In ESPN’s projections, Fitzpatrick will finish with 111 tackles, two interceptions, and a sack. The tackles are up there, which would mean the Steelers’ defense struggled to stop the run, and Fitzpatrick had to come down into the box a bit more. This is exactly what the Steelers don’t want, especially after investing heavily in the defenders in front of Fitzpatrick.
Then, there is Watt checking in at No. 10.
In the rankings, he’s the third EDGE in the NFL behind Cleveland’s Myles Garrett at No. 4 and Dallas’s Micah Parsons at No. 7.
“After he finished in the top two in voting for Defensive Player of the Year in three of the past four seasons, it’s hard to overstate Watt’s dominance,” Pryor writes of Watt for the rankings. “The game-wrecking outside linebacker led the league with 19 sacks last season. And despite missing nearly half of the 2022 season, Watt still leads the NFL with 47 sacks over the past three years. He’s showing little sign of slowing down as he enters his eighth NFL season, and Alex Highsmith’s continued development opposite of him only helps Watt’s effectiveness.”
Watt should have won the NFL’s Defensive Player of the Year award last season but was robbed of it by Garrett despite having better stats across the board in every single category.
His 19 sacks last season helped him lead the NFL in sacks for the third time in his career, setting an NFL record. He also became the Steelers’ all-time sacks leader last season, surpassing James Harrison. On top of that, Watt surpassed his older brother, J.J., in most career sacks in the first 100 games of a career, too, putting him behind only Reggie White.
He’s on a Hall of Fame pace and is showing no signs of slowing down. Somehow though, ESPN’s projection had him down for just 13 sacks on the season. He should easily surpass that number if he’s healthy again this season, especially with the likes of Alex Highsmith and Nick Herbig emerging around him, giving the Steelers a fearsome pass rush once again.
