Steelers give opponents plenty to read
Team uses more lineup combinations on defense than any other NFL club
Forall the talk of who’s “starting” for the Steelers defense this season — cornerback, inside linebacker, now even nose tackle — there may notbe a city in the league where that distinction matters less than it does herein Pittsburgh.
And when second-year Jets quarterbackZach Wilson makes his season debut Sunday at Acrisure Stadium, he’ll do so against a defense that’s difficult to read. The set of matchups he’s looking at figures to change just about every play, let aloneevery series or possession.
Through three games, no team has used more defensive lineup combinations than the Steelers’ 116. The Cowboys are second (112) but only two others — Miami and Baltimore — have used even more than 100 personnel groupings. At the other end of the spectrum are teams suchas the Bengals (47), Buccaneers (44) and Jaguars (42), who mostly stick with the same packages and ask their “starters,” plus a few role players,to do the heavy lifting.
“I think we went into the offseason making sure that we had some different groupings available to us. And then it was accelerated by losing T.J. [Watt],” Steelers defensive coordinatorTeryl Austin said.
“We decided we wanted to do a few more things to try to help us out. But I think that’s always the goal. You don’t always want to be stagnant. ... I think by being multiple with our groupings, it makes the offense work a little bit harder in terms of identifying what you’re tryingto do.”
Indeed, losing the reigning NFL Defensive Player of the Year forces the Steelers to get a bit more creative— or add some different “wrinkles” as Austin put it. But anyone who watched this defense dating back to training camp saw how often they’ve rotated players in and out to work on various sub-packages, and they’re doing it more than ever.
In 2019 no team used fewer defensive groupings than the Steelers, who played their most common
lineup on a league-high 12.7% of the snaps. To Austin’s point, the Steelers’ players and coaches hope that their revolving door on defense will not only keep them fresh but also force offenses to game plan for more curveballs that could come their way.
“Sometimes it can be difficult,” said first-year Steelers backup Levi Wallace, who plays outside cornerback depending on the formation. “But I think it makes us more complex. We can do a lot of different things in all those personnels. You can’t really book us for anything.”
Wallace is a good one to speak on it because his playing time has fluctuated to this point, as it has for Arthur Maulet, another veteran defensive back the Steelers value for his versatility. Both are in for a bigger role this week without starting cornerback Ahkello Witherspoon, who will miss the Jets game witha hamstring injury.
Perhaps backup James Pierre, mainly a special teamer, will see his first action this season on defense — pushing those lineup combination stats even higher if he does — but more likely is that Wallace will play outside opposite Cam Sutton, and Maulet will be trusted with more slot snaps against the team he played with for two seasons before signing with the Steelers last year.
“Obviously, you want to be in the flow of the game, right? That’s the biggest thing,” Maulet said. “But the different packages and different looks we give teams kind of gives them a hectic look. They don’t really know what to game plan for and stuff like that. So it’s a love-hate relationship withit.”
In the case of Witherspoon’s Austin said it will be a “committee” approach in the secondary. Like Maulet, part-time contributors Montravius Adams and Tre Norwood both stressed communication and staying ready when your number is called. Minimal drop-off is the key, but that’s a double-edged sword, too, for the bench guys.
“When you start, it helps you get on a better roll,” Adams said. “Just to be out there this drive, be out there [next] drive. ‘OK, I see the Olinemen doing this, I see the tight ends doing this, now we can move.’”
Three games into the season, the Steelers have their traditional 3-4 defense, which is hardly their base defense these days given how often they use five defensive backs. So, really, it’s their base nickel package that gets most of the snaps in the modern NFL, with a slot cornerback as the 11th defender instead of a third-down lineman. And the dime defense with six defensive backs comes in handy against pass-happy offenses, too.
But these Steelers also have a “big nickel” lineup, where rookie defensive end DeMarvin Leal replaces an outside linebacker, and a three-inside linebacker grouping in which Devin Bush, Myles Jack and Robert Spillane all get out there at the sametime.
“They’ve got such an inventory from the amount of years that the group has been together. It’s pretty significant,” Jets coach Robert Saleh said of the Steelers’ constantly shuffling defenses. “They can pull from anything. It’s a really, really cool system, and the players execute it to a really high level.”
And yet, that level waned a bit last week against the Browns, and late in the game against the Patriots. The hope is that as the Steelers continue to tinker with what works and what doesn’t, especially in the wake of injuries, depth will shine through for a defense that’s often viewed as Watt, Cam Heyward, Minkah Fitzpatrick and everyone else.
Latest tweaks seem to include more Adams on the defensive line, specifically at nose tackle, where he’s now listed as the starter ahead of Tyson Alualu. But both agreed that where you are on the depth chart doesn’t mean much. All that matters is doing your part when you’re in the game, and for those two, that means stopping the run. The Steelers stacked the box 61% of the time in Cleveland, according to NFL Next Gen Stats, and Nick Chubb still rushed for 113 yards.
“I think the rotation is good because it allows guys to play with fresh legs,” Austin said. “Ithink, overall, we’ve just got to coach better. We’ve got to play better in the second half. We’ve got to be able to make those stops when we need them. I don’t think there’s any secret.”
Well, maybe not, but there are a lot of ingredients going intothe Steelers’ defensive formula. There’s no magic recipe, so they’ll keep chopping up ways to make up for the loss of Watt, and once he returns, they’ll want to be cooking with gas.
One young Steeler who’s trying to maximize his production when he gets his chances just wants to do some remodeling of opposing offenses. Leal, drafted in the third round this year to play defensive end, is providing more position flexibility than anyone expected this early in his career. But don’t call him an outside linebacker just yet when he replaces NFL sack leader Alex Highsmith or Malik Reed in the 3-3-5 nickel package.
“They drop [in coverage]. I’m not dropping,” the 6-foot-4, 300-pound Leal said with a grin. “What do you do with a wrecking ball? You just let it wreck stuff. You don’t do all that extra stuff.”
At least there’s one simple aspect of the Steelers defense.