The failures of the run defense last year were so alarming that the Pittsburgh Steelers added 649 pounds of mass to their defensive line with the additions of Derrick Harmon and Yahya Black via the 2025 NFL Draft. Nobody is being counted on more for the defense’s improvement in 2025 than Harmon. According to Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Steelers insider Ray Fittipaldo, he passed the eye test on the first day of practice at voluntary OTAs.
“Harmon is just, he’s that big prototypical defensive end,” Fittipaldo said Wednesday via 93.7 The Fan’s Morning Show. “He looks the part. Yahya Black, too. That guy is a big body. They can play anywhere on that defensive line. So we’re not going to find out about those guys until training camp, but I’m really looking forward to Latrobe and seeing those guys in one-on-ones against Zach Frazier and Mason McCormick.”
Football in shorts isn’t the best place to evaluate trench play with no pads and no contact allowed. But seeing these players next to veterans for the first time gives a good frame of reference on their body types. Neither Harmon nor Black looked out of place. If anything, they stood out in a positive way.
Since Stephon Tuitt’s early retirement, the Steelers haven’t had many prototypical defensive linemen for their system. Guys like Larry Ogunjobi lacked the proper height and overall length needed to be effective both inside aligned over guard and outside over tackle.
Both Harmon and Black have the dimensions necessary to play anywhere on the line. Harmon is 313 pounds with 34 3/8-inch arms while Black is 336 pounds with 35-inch arms. Compared to Ogunjobi at 6025, 305 pounds with 32 5/8-inch arms, that is quite the difference.
Based on Alex Kozora’s annual “What The Steelers Look For” study, both Black and Harmon are in the upper percentile for height, weight and arm length for Steelers defensive ends.
There are only so many human beings on the planet with the correct dimensions to play in the Steelers’ 3-4 defensive front. By the look of it, they may have found two of them in the 2025 draft.
