On paper, the Pittsburgh Steelers’ defense was a good group that got better heading into the 2024 season. It was a great group that was expected to be elite. T.J. Watt, Cameron Heyward, and Minkah Fitzpatrick returned and were healthy after injury issues in 2023, and the Steelers added big pieces like Patrick Queen, DeShon Elliott, Donte Jackson, and Payton Wilson.
The 2023 group fared pretty well considering all the injuries. A fortified group with better injury luck should have resulted in one of the best defenses in the league. The Steelers are spending the most amount of money among NFL teams on their defense, after all.
After an elite start, the defense has become one of the big problems during the Steelers’ late-season struggles. Dan Graziano says the idea that the Steelers have an elite defense is nothing but a myth.
“The Steelers’ defense is good (seventh in defensive efficiency, seventh in defensive EPA), but it is not one of the elite defenses in the league,” Graziano wrote via ESPN. “Pittsburgh ranked 17th in sacks and 18th in sacks per opponent drop back. And only seven teams allowed more passing yards per game than the Steelers’ 228.”
The Steelers have been at or near the top of the top of the list for sacks for several seasons. T.J. Watt consistently being the sack leader has been a big part of that, but he experienced his worst sack season since his rookie year if you discount his 2022 season in which he only played 10 games due to injury. At 11.5 sacks, Watt finished tied for eighth, six sacks out of first place. Micah Parsons passed him in Week 18 despite missing four games with an injury.
You could argue that Watt, Fitzpatrick, Queen, Joey Porter Jr., Keeanu Benton, and others have had disappointing seasons relative to expectations. Watt might be controversial to lump into that group, but he’s set a pretty high bar for himself that he didn’t quite live up to.
One area the Steelers did really well is in forced turnovers. The Steelers had 33 takeaways, including some from their special teams. That trailed off over the last month of the season as the Steelers’ turnover culture regressed.
During the three-game, 11-day stretch against three division-winning teams, the Steelers defense showed its true colors. Over that stretch, they allowed 402.7 yards and 30 points per game. I don’t care how good the opponents are, elite defenses don’t allow that.
If there is one small bit of hope entering the playoffs, it’s the fact that the Steelers only allowed 19 points to Joe Burrow and the high-powered Cincinnati Bengals offense in Week 18. It was the best that the defense had looked since the Steelers beat the Baltimore Ravens 18-16 without scoring a single touchdown in mid-November.
“As the bloom has come off the Russell Wilson offense here in the final month of the season, the defense has needed to step up at a much higher level — and it has not done the job,” Graziano wrote.
The frustrating part is that we’ve seen this defense do elite things at different points throughout the season. The Steelers are going to need to recapture that if they wish to win their first playoff game since the 2016 season on the road against the Ravens this Saturday.
