Keeanu Benton is facing a pivotal season, heading into his third year, but his coaches still expect greatness from him. Though his lack of traditional production numbers raises some red flags, they see the tape. He isn’t a finished product at this early stage of his career, but DL coach Karl Dunbar has no concerns about what he sees out of his young nose tackle. Or about what he doesn’t see.
“He just has to work on finishing plays,” Dunbar said of Benton via the Steelers’ media department, a recurring narrative. “Sack productivity has to get up. He does a great job of hitting the quarterback, but until you put the skins on the wall, that’s all they’ve got.”
A second-round pick in 2023, Keeanu Benton looks great in uniform and often after the snap. But while he can get into the backfield, his two career sacks show that he isn’t finishing plays. He has 16 quarterback hits, so he is getting there, but the quarterback is escaping with his skin.
Another concern some have about Benton is whether the Steelers have him in the correct position. Nominally playing the nose tackle role, he isn’t as large as some of his predecessors. Not all of them, though, and Dunbar pointed that out in a hurry when reporters brought that up.
“He changed his body well. He’s still 310,” he said of Benton, which was roughly his drafted weight. Dunbar added, “He’s still 310 and he’s got big, heavy hands. He’s had a great offseason where he really took care of his body.”
As reporters continued the line of questioning, he doubled down on Keeanu Benton being the right size.
“I think it’s awesome. For him, it fits his body stock,” Dunbar insisted. “We had a nose tackle here who was 295 pounds—[Javon] Hargrave—and he left and made a whole bunch of money. It’s just how your body’s built and what your body’s built for.”
Hargrave was indeed smaller than Benton, but he managed to make it work. In fact, he’s had a very successful post-Steelers career, something they hope Benton never has a chance to experience. In his first four seasons post-Pittsburgh, Hargrave recorded 30 sacks with 32 tackles for loss and multiple Pro Bowls.
Back in Pittsburgh, the Steelers are counting on revitalizing their defensive line. To that end, they drafted DE Derrick Harmon in the first round and added DT Yahya Black in Round 5. However, that revitalization must also come from within, specifically with Keeanu Benton taking his game to the next level.
With Cameron Heyward much nearer to the end of his career than the beginning, to put it modestly, it is imperative for the Steelers to have the transitional pieces in place. They hope that Harmon is the next Heyward, but you need more than one guy. They like who Benton has been up to this point, but they need him to be who he can be. No matter what the scale says when he steps on it, that fact weighs heavily on his and their future.
