So far in Pittsburgh Steelers training camp at Saint Vincent College in Latrobe, the star-studded defense is leading the way, dominating the practice sessions.
Considering the amount of money poured into that side of the football and the pieces added this offseason to plug key holes, that should be the case.
And it’s especially encouraging to see given how the defense fell apart late in 2024 during a five-game losing streak to end a once-promising season in ugly fashion.
Entering this season, the defense is older and more expensive, but the Steelers have pieces that plug major holes, like Darius Slay and Jalen Ramsey in the secondary and rookie Derrick Harmon at defensive end.
For linebacker Patrick Queen, the defense’s dominance in training camp is good to see but he also noted that the unit is a work in progress.
“I think we’re farther ahead than last year. It’s still not where we need to be,” Queen said, according to video via the Steelers’ YouTube page. “It’s our everyday grind, everyday battle that we gotta come in and have the mindset to get better, just 1% better. It’s a team thing, it’s a defensive thing. It’s a brotherhood.
“Everybody’s got everybody’s back and we just coming out here and trying to do that every single day, just get better.”
Through the first two weeks of training camp, the Steelers are getting better on that side of the football. They are giving the Steelers’ new-look offense fits, which is raising plenty of concerns about that side of the football. But in the process, it’s overlooking just how good the Steelers’ defense can be this season.
At times last year the defense was dominant. But late in the year communication fell apart and the ability to control games defensively went away. Of course, it didn’t help that the offense was stagnant and could hardly put together any sort of drives to give the defense rest.
But as the highest-paid defense in the league, Pittsburgh needed to be better, and it just simply wasn’t down the stretch.
“I think everybody just understands what happened last year, and we don’t wanna repeat that,” Queen said. “Then again, like I said in the last time, it always starts at the top and runs the way down. So, we’ve been getting great detail on the assignments that we need, and right now we’re executing.”
The fall-off late in the season started with communication struggles and then really culminated in the failure to execute assignments. It all came to a head in a Wild Card Round loss to the rival Baltimore Ravens in which the Steelers allowed 299 rushing yards and never really were in the game.
Changes occurred this offseason, and now the Steelers look like a better defense on paper. They might be more aggressive this season, too, from a blitzing perspective, and they have shown new looks moving outside linebacker T.J. Watt around.
That shows growth and an open-mindedness to try new things and not just run it back, status quo. Hopefully those changes are seen during the regular season, and the defense can get back to its elite ways. If it does, looking the way it has in training camp so far, Pittsburgh is going to be a very good team.
