The Pittsburgh Steelers lead the NFL in takeaways with 25 on the season, nearly matching last year’s total. They have consistently ranked in the top half of the league for years, and sometimes even in the top two. And their new pieces like Donte Jackson have had a great deal to do with that. Of their 25 takeaways on the season, 18 have come from players in their first year with the Steelers.
Jackson has six of them on his own, including a career-high five interceptions and a fumble recovery. Freshly imported from the Carolina Panthers, he says what he has experienced with the Steelers in terms of ball culture is entirely new for him. But it all goes to show that it’s not luck when they so consistently find the ball.
“It’s something we’ve been working since Day 1. The takeaway drills, the takeaway circuits, that’s something we’ve been doing since our first OTA practice”, Donte Jackson said on Steelers Nation Radio. “It was new to me just to see so much emphasis on taking the ball away and how much it’s actually built on day-to-day work and not just showing up on Sundays and T.J. [Watt] making plays”.
While Watt has an NFL-leading five forced fumbles, forced fumbles are not technically turnovers. They are, of course, huge facilitators of them, and the Steelers have forced 15. Watt has recovered two, and DeShon Elliott, who has fit right in, has recovered three. He and Jackson are the only defensive backs with fumble recoveries for the Steelers so far this year. and it all goes back to the consistent, persistent effort to produce takeaway opportunities. Even against teams that don’t turn the ball over, they find a way.
“From the outside looking in, that’s how I thought it was”, Donte Jackson said of teams just coming in and winning the luck of the draw in the turnover battle on any given day. “But then I get here and I’m like, ‘Nah, Mink [Minkah Fitzpatrick] is as great interception guy because he’s working it every day. T.J. is punching these balls out and Cam [Heyward]’s batting these balls in the air because you see him working it every day. [It’s] just embodied into the culture. It’s been awesome just to see, and it’s been even more awesome to see it come to live on Sundays”.
Luck comes to you much more frequently and easily when you create it yourself. Donte Jackson has certainly benefited from those created opportunities. The Steelers ball search at every opportunity—one might argue too often. While it can create big plays, it can also enable teams the other way if you miss.
But such is the impact of a takeaway that the Steelers are willing to take that risk. Surprisingly, they have multiple losses this season with three-plus takeaways and a plus-two turnover differential. But they are 7-2 when they win the turnover battle, so all in all, that’s not so bad. And they are 2-1 when they don’t—which isn’t so bad, either. But nobody is going to turn down extra possessions.
