Entering the 2024 season, there were a lot of questions about the Pittsburgh Steelers’ defensive line.
Cameron Heyward was coming off an injury-plagued 2023 season, Larry Ogunjobi had largely failed to live up to his 2023 three-year extension, and the depth looked highly questionable after very little investment in the group over the offseason.
If the Week 1 win against the Atlanta Falcons is any indication, those questions are being answered in a hurry. They put up a dominant performance, and each of the players contributed in their own way.
“Like I said in training camp, I think we’ve grown as a d-line,” Montravius Adams said Monday following the Week 1 win in a video posted by TribLive’s Chris Adamski on X. “I just think we going to continue to get better. I think we encourage each other. I think we help teach each other in the moments. And I mean, I really believe that the sky’s the limit for our d-line. As long as we stay together, we can do whatever we want.”
NFL Pickwatch tracks weekly picks from over 200 experts from various media outlets. A whopping 74-percent of them took the Falcons to win in Week 1. A lot of the rationale I heard was the Falcons’ offense being a very strong unit with Kirk Cousins and Bijan Robinson. They were both largely held in check, and a lot of that had to do with the performance of the defensive line.
The Steelers’ interior defensive linemen combined for 13 total tackles, one sack, one tackle for loss, four quarterback hits, and nine pressures.
Adams had the lone sack of the bunch. I included a clip of that play below.
Heyward called Ogunjobi the “unsung hero” of the game with both of the interceptions being a direct result of his interior pressure on Cousins.
Robinson is being lauded as one of the top running backs in the league, and the Falcons’ offensive line is among the top units in football as well. The Steelers held Robinson to 68 yards on 18 carries for just a 3.8 average. I don’t know how many times Robinson will be held to numbers that low this year.
Cousins had a rough debut in Atlanta, in part because of the Steelers’ defensive line. He completed 16 of his 26 attempts for 155 yards, one touchdown, and two interceptions.
Pair the great d-line with what we already know to be a top-tier outside linebacker group, and Pittsburgh has one of the most devastating defensive fronts in football.
