In the game of football, tackling seems like a pretty basic thing, one that is very important to the overall game itself.
Yet, time and time again the importance of tackling, especially in today’s game with rule changes and the limited amount of practice time teams have and the amount of contact allowed in those practices has affected that very basic concept within the game.
Today, players and teams struggle to tackle cleanly and consistently.
But through the first three weeks of the 2024 season in the NFL, that cannot be said for the Pittsburgh Steelers.
According to Pro Football Focus, the Steelers have missed just 16 tackles in the first three weeks. Here at Steelers Depot, we have the Steelers down for just 15 missed tackles.
Even with that one missed tackle discrepancy, one thing is clear based on PFF’s metrics: the Steelers are one of the best-tackling teams in the NFL.
The San Francisco 49ers hold the distinction of the best-tackling team through three weeks with just 14 missed tackles while the Tampa Bay Buccaneers lead the NFL in missed tackles with 41. Elsewhere in the AFC North, the Cincinnati Bengals have 29 missed tackles, and the Baltimore Ravens and Cleveland Browns have 26 missed tackles each.
The Steelers are right there with the 49ers among the best in the game, which is a major improvement from recent years.
Just last season alone, the Steelers had 25 missed tackles through three games, based on charting here at Steelers Depot. That included nine missed tackles in the season opener against the San Francisco 49ers, and then 12 missed tackles in Week 2 last season against the Cleveland Browns, before missing four tackles in Week 3 against the Las Vegas Raiders.
Ultimately, the Steelers went on to miss 143 tackles in the 2023 season, including the playoffs, 7.94 missed tackles per game based on charting here at Steelers Depot.
That number might seem high, and it is, considering that in 2022 alone, the Steelers finished the season with just 97 missed tackles, so there was an increase of 46 missed tackles from 2022 to 2023.
This season, the Steelers appear to be in much better shape in the tackling department, having missed just seven tackles against the Atlanta Falcons, five tackles against the Denver Broncos, and then just three tackles against the Los Angeles Chargers.
Hopefully that trend can continue as the Steelers’ defense is off to an elite start overall, not just in the tackling department.
It helps having the league’s best tackler, too.
According to PFF, star safety Minkah Fitzpatrick has the NFL’s best tackling grade at 90.0 on the season.
“Fitzpatrick has been outstanding through the first three weeks of the season, earning a 90.0 PFF tackling grade. He hasn’t missed a tackle on 15 attempts and has recorded five defensive stops,” PFF’s Gordon McGuinness writes. “Tackling has been a strength throughout Fitzpatrick’s career, as he has earned a PFF tackling grade above 75.0 in each of the past three seasons. He missed less than 10% of his tackle attempts in both 2022 and 2023.”
Last season, even while battling through injuries and missing significant time, Fitzpatrick missed just eight tackles with a missed-tackles rate of just 9.8%. During the 2022 season, Fitzpatrick missed just nine tackles and had a missed-tackles rate of just 8.6%.
The 2021 season was a rough one for Fitzpatrick, who missed a team-high 19 tackles with a missed-tackles rate of 13.3%. But since then, he’s been rock solid and the best tackler on the team, period.
It’s very encouraging to see Fitzpatrick among the best of the best year after year in the tackling department, not only on his team but in the NFL. Since joining the Steelers after a 2019 trade, Fitzpatrick has improved his tackling grade from PFF every season, going from 59.7 in 2019 to 83.6 last season.
That’s largely been how the Steelers have progressed as a team in the tackling department, too, which is encouraging.
