Last season, the Pittsburgh Steelers finished the year as the fourth-best tackling team in football, according to Next Gen Stats. After many years of struggling to get guys on the ground efficiently, the Steelers made significant improvements last season.
Then, they went and changed things up in a major way defensively.
New faces entered the fold and familiar players who were sound tacklers left, raising questions about the ability to tackle well for a second straight season. There were some struggles early in the year, but now coming out of the bye week, the Steelers are coming off the best-ever tackling performance since I started tracking missed tackles for Steelers Depot in 2016.
So, how do things line up through four games this season compared to last year? Glad you asked. Let’s do a side-by-side comparison and see.
| Games | 2024 | 2025 |
| Week 1 | at Falcons, 7 | at Jets, 9 |
| Week 2 | at Broncos, 5 | vs. Seahawks, 8 |
| Week 3 | vs. Chargers, 3 | at Patriots, 11 |
| Week 4 | at Colts, 7 | vs. Vikings, 2 |
| Total | 22 (5.5 per game) | 30 (7.5 per game) |
As you can see, the Steelers through the first four weeks of the 2025 season have eight more missed tackles than the 2024 group did in the same span. That’s 2.0 more missed tackles per game, which might seem a bit alarming.
There’s one key difference this season: The Steelers’ defense has been on the field for 274 snaps so far through the first four games. Last season in the first four games, the Steelers’ defense was on the field for just 229 snaps. That’s a difference of 45 snaps.
Is that enough for eight missed tackles to be the difference? No, but it’s an important data point to remember. Additionally, through four games last season, the Steelers had just nine players record missed tackles. This year, that number has grown to 16 through four games.
The Steelers were outstanding tackling early last year but fizzled out late in the season. Remember, in that tough stretch around the holidays, the Steelers at one point missed 36 tackles in two games, with 20 against the Philadelphia Eagles and 16 against the Baltimore Ravens.
The tackling issues played a part in the Steelers’ collapse last season. Pittsburgh also missed 14 tackles in the Wild Card Round loss to the Baltimore Ravens.
So far this season, though, they’re doing a nice job of tackling, especially in recent weeks. It’s limiting the big plays. The performance in Dublin against the Vikings was especially encouraging.
In the first four weeks, the two players with the most missed tackles are outside linebacker Nick Herbig and inside linebacker Patrick Queen, both of whom have four on the season. Herbig has a 25% miss rate, while Queen sits at a 10.3% miss rate.
Queen missed 22 tackles last season in his first year in the Black and Gold, finishing with a 13.7% missed tackles rate, while Herbig was second with 14 misses, finishing with an ugly 39% miss rate.
Both have shown improvements this year, though, especially Queen. He’s getting into position to make more plays, is playing fast and free, and has provided a physical edge to the defense.Â
Fellow inside linebacker Payton Wilson is improving in the tackling department, too. Last year as a rookie he missed 13 tackles and had a missed tackles rate of 13.4%. This season, he has just three misses and a 7.9% missed tackles rate.
We’ll see how things play out moving forward, but while the missed tackles numbers are up for the Steelers through the first four weeks compared to last year, players are making major improvements in the department, and that trend should only continue down the stretch.
