This week the Pittsburgh Steelers will finally have a chance to deploy all of their top pass rushers in the same game. They’ve been dealing with several different injuries at edge rusher over the course of the year. Alex Highsmith has missed significant time due to multiple injuries, but he’s expected to return this week. It will be interesting how the Steelers deploy all of them, and if they flip any to opposite sides. Teryl Austin went into detail Thursday on why the Steelers choose to do that sometimes.
“I think they’re all game plan specific in terms of what we feel we can get done,” Austin said via team-provided transcripts. “We don’t just move them to move them. What we do is move them when we think we have an advantage, and it gives us an advantage.
“Anytime we play, ‘Hey, we’re only going to do things we think are helpful to our cause and helping us win.’ We’re not always right, but when you see them move, it’s not just, ‘Well, let’s move them because.’ It’s because we think it gives us an advantage.”
That answer is about as straightforward as it gets. The Steelers haven’t moved their pass rushers to opposite sides very often, but this season it’s becoming a little more common. There’s a method to their madness, although sometimes it feels like they should move their edge rushers around more often.
Take their last game against the Cleveland Browns for example. T.J. Watt stayed at left outside linebacker while Nick Herbig played exclusively at right outside linebacker. In that 24-19 loss, Watt was completely shut out. He basically had no impact. It feels like the Steelers could’ve moved him to the right side at times to get him going.
The Browns were on their third-string left tackle as well. That’s a matchup Watt could’ve dominated. He wasn’t the only one having issues either. The entire Steelers pass rush unit had a rough game against the Browns. At that point, the Steelers needed to try to create an advantage.
Last week, the Steelers did flip their edge rushers around more, showing that they’re not abandoning that strategy. It seems like it could become more popular down the stretch. With Highsmith back this week too, the Steelers could really cause havoc up front.
Obviously, the Steelers shouldn’t be constantly shifting their best players around. Watt has built a Hall of Fame career rushing the passer as a left outside linebacker. However, maybe they should be more willing to mix things up if they can’t get any pressure. The Browns won the teams’ first matchup on Nov. 21, and if the Steelers want to see different results Sunday, they may need to get creative.
