After much offseason hype, second-year Steelers ILB Payton Wilson is not under fire, with some questioning whether he should sit. While he has 15 tackles and a sack, he’s also missed several tackles and has not been sharp in coverage. He’s far from the only Steelers defender struggling right now, though, and he is also adjusting to a full-time role.
Former Steelers executive Doug Whaley suggested on 93.7 The Fan that they should treat Wilson as they are Kaleb Johnson, benching them for making mistakes. Although he didn’t put it in these terms, sports writer Mark Kaboly finds that notion laughable. Asked that question on Kaboly + Mack, he said no repeatedly. Although he admits Wilson has not played well, he doesn’t see the argument for benching him.
“Cole Holcomb, first of all, wasn’t much better. I saw him getting moved around a little bit as well”, Kaboly said, Holcomb being the next linebacker up. “I think Payton Wilson still has a bright future, and you don’t want to take one game and just say, ‘Okay, you’re done’”.
A 2024 third-round pick, Payton Wilson split reps last season with Elandon Roberts. With Roberts gone, he is now in a full-time role, playing almost 90 percent of the snaps. And surely, he looks the part on some downs, displaying his athleticism. At other times, he still looks like a rookie, or simply overmatched and undersized. And part of the problem is the Steelers have two inside linebackers cut from a similar cloth.
“You’ve got two very similar guys playing inside linebacker, and what you do that, first of all, you’ve got to keep your guys clean, which they haven’t been able to do at all”, Kaboly said. Both Wilson and Patrick Queen are more finesse linebackers. Kaboly is right that the Steelers’ defensive line has not done what is necessary to keep them clean and free to make plays.
“Second of all, that tends to happen when you’ve got two guys that can do the same exact thing”, he added. “So, live by the sword, die by the sword. You want two guys running sideline to sideline, those things are gonna tend to happen from time to time”.
It’s just two games, though, and there is still a lot of season left in front of us. Everybody knows the Steelers aren’t going to bench Payton Wilson. And as Kaboly said, it’s not like Holcomb played particularly well, even if Ben Roethlisberger somehow thinks otherwise.
We still don’t know in which direction this thing is heading, and we might not know for weeks. Is there a fundamental problem with playing both Payton Wilson and Patrick Queen—just too small? The Steelers are going to find out, one way or another, it seems, and it’s not like they have another legitimate alternative. Maybe in a couple weeks they can try to turn Ja’Whaun Bentley into their new Elandon Roberts. But that still won’t solve the main problem.
