The Pittsburgh Steelers’ ‘Blitzburgh’ mantra and history is well-documented but has unfortunately been absent in recent years. Here’s how the Steelers have stacked up leaguewide in sacks since 2017:
As you can see, Pittsburgh’s defense was comfortably above 50 sacks consistently, but has fallen short of that ideal mark the last three seasons:
2017: 56 sacks (first)
2018: 52 sacks (T-first)
2019: 54 sacks (first)
2020: 56 sacks (first)
2021: 55 sacks (first)
2022: 40 sacks (T-14th)
2023: 47 sacks (T-11th)
2024: 40 sacks (T-16th)
The Steelers had five straight seasons with 50-plus sacks from 2017-2021, tops in the league each year. That has dipped closer to league average since as the rest of the NFL has seen a rise in sack production.
Pittsburgh recently tied for its lowest sack numbers in the span with its 2022 output when the team failed to make the playoffs. Luckily that wasn’t the case this season but brings up the dreaded playoff drought since 2016 with better sack production being part of righting that wrong.
The first name in any Steelers conversation involving sacks is star edge rusher T.J. Watt. As you might have guessed, the years he has been most productive aligns with Pittsburgh’s best marks. This includes leading the league in sacks in 2020, 2021 (along with winning the NFL Defensive Player of the Year award), and 2023.
In 2024, he arguably got the most attention of any NFL pass rusher, and the opposition limited him to 11.5 sacks. That’s the lowest number of his career, excluding his rookie year and 2022 when he missed substantial time to injury. Watt also tied his longest sack drought in the last three regular-season games of 2024, the only time that’s occurred the last five years.
It’s well-documented that Watt prefers to rush from the left side. In 2024, 982 of his snaps on the edge came from the left, with a huge disparity of just 11 coming off the right edge. That simply can’t happen anymore with the season we just witnessed, and Watt has acknowledged he needs to be “more open to moving around” to maximize his impact.
That would be huge in striking more fear into opposing quarterbacks, the Steelers scheming more ways for Watt to wreck games more consistently. We, of course, know that football is the ultimate team sport, and team production wasn’t up to snuff overall either.
2024 Sacks
EDGE T.J. Watt – 11.5
DL Cameron Heyward – 8.0
EDGE Alex Highsmith – 6.0
EDGE Nick Herbig – 5.5
EDGE Preston Smith – 2.0
DL Larry Ogunjobi – 1.5
LB Patrick Queen – 1.0
DL Keeanu Benton – 1.0
LB Elandon Roberts – 1.0
DL Dean Lowry – 1.0
DL Montravius Adams – 1.0
CB Beanie Bishop Jr. – 0.5
Part of Heyward’s impressive Pro Bowl season that thankfully defied Father Time was being second in sacks for Pittsburgh. Highsmith landed third while playing just 11 games and will hopefully have a healthy 2025 en route to his best season yet. The depth at EDGE was thankfully stronger than years past, namely Herbig continuing to cash in on his opportunities.
Seeing the rest of the Steelers’ interior defensive line much lower on the list was painful though, and it simply wasn’t good enough in 2024 across the board aside from Heyward. Big roster turnover at DL could be the result with the Steelers looking for more talent and better play from those who do return. Benton is highest on that list of hopes for me.
There are several layers to the hopeful turn around and eclipsing the 50-sack mark again, which bodes well for defensive success. Another huge factor is blitz rates. Several of Pittsburgh’s league-leading seasons in sacks featured 200-plus blitzes. That has tapered the last three years overall, including just 165 blitzes in 2024, the fewest during that span.
I don’t know about you, but I think it’s time to get back to it Blitzburgh.
