Can the Steelers finish among the league’s top defenses again in 2018?
It’s not unusual for the Steelers to have a lot of hype surrounding them at the beginning of each season. Several analysts are predicting that the Steelers will once again be a Super Bowl contender.
Led by the Killer B’s of Ben Roethlisberger, Le’Veon Bell and Antonio Brown, there’s no reason to believe the Steelers, at least offensively, won’t be a force to contend with. Antonio Brown is at the top of the boards in Las Vegas for receiving yards, be sure to check different betting sites to confirm this info.
Big Ben’s retirement talk was premature. Committing to playing “several” more years in the Steel City, Roethlisberger is one of the favorites to throw the most touchdowns this season as well as have the most passing yards. Le’Veon Bell is also expected to be in among the top backs statistically in the NFL in both rushing yards and rushing touchdowns. (And maybe even receiving yards…)
However, there’s still one thing that’s being overlooked with the Steelers: their defense.
Save the nicknames: for now
It’s not your father’s “Steel Curtain” but the Steelers defense was fairly solid all of last season. Barring an unfortunate setback with the injury of Ryan Shazier, the Steelers led the league in sacks with 56 in 2017. The defense ranked seventh in points allowed and fifth in yards allowed.
That looks good on paper, but at times they gave up big plays which led to an overhaul of several areas this offseason. The defense introduces two new position coaches at the defensive line and defensive backs positions.
The team also said goodbye to veterans Mike Mitchell, William Gay, Robert Golden and Arthur Moats this offseason. That’s in addition to Ryan Shazier, who was placed on injured reserve and has announced he will not play in 2018 due to a spinal cord injury suffered last November against the Bengals.
In their place the Steelers signed LB Jon Bostic, formerly of the Indianapolis Colts and safety Morgan Burnett, who was lured away from the Green Bay Packers. The organization failed to find another linebacker in this year’s draft, but focused heavily on the secondary by adding two more safeties: first-round pick Terrell Edmunds and fifth-rounder Marcus Allen.
While Bostic is no Shazier, he’s capable of filling the void left by his predecessor better than Sean Spence, who was signed off of the couch to start in the Steelers last three regular season games. Along with the returning cast, including double-digit sack leader and team captain Cameron Heyward, the defense appears to be on the upswing.
A revamped secondary is one of the main reasons why.
The Secondary sounds like pocket change
The Steelers found three starting cornerbacks last season. The first was the Browns loss and Steelers gain, as Joe Haden was quickly snatched out of free agency after Cleveland released him following the preseason.
With a full offseason at 100% health, Haden appears to be the shutdown corner that the Steelers have been seeking for years. He will pair up with former first round pick Artie Burns, who at only 23-years-old, isn’t even scratching the surface of his ability entering his third pro season.
Two more corners acquired in 2017 should have an impact in 2018. Mike Hilton emerged as a threat in pass rushing situations from his nickel corner role. 2017 third-round pick Cameron Sutton missed a portion of last season on IR, but is a versatile DB who could split time on the outside or in the slot.
Second-year corner Brian Allen and veteran Coty Sensabaugh round out a deep cornerback group.
An overhauled safety group sees Sean Davis as the only viable returning player. Jordan Dangerfield, who is currently in training camp, missed all of the 2017 season. He’ll be hard-pressed to leap frog new additions Burnett, Edmunds, Allen and former New York Giant Nat Berhe. Berhe has seen quite a deal of playing time in camp with Burnett and Davis banged up, but each of those veterans has returned and are effectively the starters.
Keep an eye on Davis, especially. The third-year pro started as a nickel corner his rookie season before moving to strong safety. He will now shift over to free safety, with Mike Tomlin acknowledging that rookie Terrell Edmunds will play exclusively in Davis’ old spot. The first-round pick could start, but Burnett is expected to play: the former Packer can play anywhere on the field, even lining up as a linebacker during his time in Green Bay.
Some Steelers defensive packages:
Nickel – 5 DBs
Dime – 6 DBs (4 CBs)
Quarter – 6 DBs (3 CBs)
Dollar – 7 DBs— James C Wexell (@jimwexell) August 7, 2018
Berhe expects to be a special teams standout as an upgrade over Robert Golden, who was seen as the same. The plethora of talent in these position groups allows for a lot of versatility. As an effect, we’ve been hearing rumblings of new sub packages. In years past, the Steelers would stay away from using a “dime” formation, but they’re no longer adverse to sending as many as seven defensive backs into certain situations.
Replacing Shazier
With Ryan Shazier being placed on the injured reserve list, the rest of the linebacker corps has to step up in a big way.
Last season, the run defense appeared to fall apart whenever he was off of the field. His backup, Tyler Matakevich also got hurt, leading the Steelers to using Arthur Moats (strictly an outside linebacker with little experience playing inside) and Sean Spence (who wasn’t on an NFL roster when he was asked to start).
The result was nothing short of a disaster, as the Steelers run defense left holes for opponents such as Alex Collins, Dion Lewis, and Leonard Fournette throughout the end of the season and into the playoffs.
Jon Bostic will add a veteran presence in Shazier’s former role, but the team is also high on Matakevich in training camp. Regardless, it appears those quarter and dollar packages will attempt to replace Shazier’s speed and savvy as opposed to any one linebacker.
Upfront, the rest of the front 7 is poised for a breakout. Well, Heyward broke out already, but you can almost count on him doing the same as last season in 2018, when he led the Steelers D with a dozen sacks. Stephon Tuitt was banged up early in the season but is Heyward’s bookend.
In the middle of this defense lies a number of potential defensive tackles such as Javon Hargrave, Tyson Alualu, and L.T. Walton. However, I wouldn’t expect to see those players dotting the 3-4 D: the Steelers have slowly moved toward the sub packages mentioned above, with the nickel defense being their new bread and butter. As such, these three players figure to spell Heyward and Tuitt on the ends in a four-man front that features outside linebackers Bud Dupree and T.J. Watt.
Watt, who had a standout rookie season, will look to build on his experience in year two. Dupree, who many have been down on, is making a move to the right side of the formation, swapping with Watt in an attempt to harass opposing QBs even more than they did in 2017.
Conclusion
While the loss of Shazier still has to be overcome, the Steleers have had an entire offseason (as opposed to a handful of day) to prepare. Realistically, the defense is still fairly strong; maybe even better than their franchise-setting 56-sack season in 2017.
That could be scary for opposing quarterbacks, especially in a weakened AFC North where the Steelers will matchup against Andy Dalton, Joe Flacco, and whomever the Cleveland Browns field.
It may seem crazy, but all of the variables should add up to the Steeler fielding a top-five defense in 2018.
