Steelers 24 Defensive ranking and what we failed to improve in 25

Total Defense 12th

Passing Defense 25th

Rushing Defense 6th

Scoring Defense 8th

Red Zone Defense 13th

3rd Down Defense 2nd

Sacks 17th (40 Sacks)

Interceptions 4th (17 Int.)

Forced Fumbles 2nd (22 FF)

Hurries 28th (38 Hurries)

Passes Defended 10th (77 Pdef)

The stats from 2024 are very confusing. We were the 6th best run defense yet we gave up 299 rushing yards to the Ravens in the playoff loss. Our pass defense was terrible yet we were number 2 in 3rd down defense. We had a bad pass defense at 25th yet we were 4th in interceptions. We were way below our usual performance in pass rush with sacks being at 17th and hurries being at 28th yet we produced allot of interceptions and we were 10th in passes defended. I do believe the passes defended is little bit of a misnomer because alot of those passes are batted down at the line of scrimmage.

I do think the focus on the interior DT position in the draft will help us both in the run and passing defense. I think our run defensive ranking at number 6 is a bit misleading. Yes we can be good at defending the run if we commit to it but we can not be good at stopping the run and the pass against a well balanced offense. So we have to sell out to stop the run and it makes us vulnerable to the passing game. I think in the early part of last season we played more one dimensional offenses which enabled us to game plan and commit to stopping the run and that inflated our stats at that time. The latter part of the schedule exposed the defense for some of its true inefficiencies, with that being our run defense was not as good as its actual ranking.

I believe part of our issue is philosophical under Tomlin. We appear to have perhaps changed that this year with the recent draft in committing a draft pick to a bigger true run stopping DT that can play true nose and command double teams and allow our ILB’s to flow freely to the ball. We will see if we will use Black in that manner or if he will even dress for game days. I am happy with Harmon pick but to me he is more of what we have traditionally drafted under Tomlin and I am not sure if he will be a significant improvement over Ogunjobi when it comes to defending the run. I will say Harmon would be a big improvement over Ogunjobi in improving the interior pass rush.

The area where I feel like we truly failed to improve the defense is the slot CB. We definitely improved the perimeter Cb position with Darius Slay over Jackson. I was not as high on Jackson as others. Jackson was truly feast or famine. He made interceptions but he gave up alot of big plays as well. That kind of showed in our overall stats from last year as well. 25th in pass defense and 4th in interceptions. I would have preferred we picked up a younger CB in free agency for multiple seasons but I am ok with Slay as he still performed at high level last year.

The issue I have with this draft in regards to our defense is failing to truly improve the slot position. We made a late draft in a slot cb type who has alot of flaws in his game. We picked up Echols in FA who also has alot of flaws in his game. A big issue for the pro pass defense last year was two fold. There was significant miscommunication stemming from the slot position which effected the rest of the pass defense and there was a lack of pass rush. These go hand in hand. We played less man cb because we didn’t have guys that could play man in Jackson, Sutton and Bishop. The lack of confidence in the slot position made us more vanilla on defense and more predictable. As a result we blitzed less, and we did little to disguise blitzes, etc.

My point is we keep undervaluing the slot position which at this point is almost a full time position on the defense and as a result it really puts alot of stress on the rest of the secondary and the Edge players trying to get to the QB with little to no innovation.

I do expect the pass rush to improve this year simply because having Harmon in there should be a significant improvement over Ogunjobi which will help the Edge players alot. However the slot cb would have allowed for improvement as well. I am hopeful they can coach that position up with Bishop or move Minkah into that role more and be more innovative this year with their blitz packages which would go a long way to improving our pass rush and our pass defense.

 

Getting more pressure without having to blitz will help the secondary out a bunch...You mentioned that, and I agree, I'm not sold on any of the CBs they have bought in, but I have hopes for it. You never know How players that haven't thrived yet.....just may do so now.....so we shall see.

 

I agree. You and me seem to be the only ones worried about the Cb position. We have failed to address this position the last few years. Signing aging veterans isn’t the solution and completely ignoring the slot position is criminal.

 

I think we'd all agree that the Steelers aren't getting the value for the level of investment in the defense and haven't for a few years. Finishing as 13th best D while investing over 55% of the cap on defense is the highest in the league by quite a bit. As long as they keep some of those big salaries for aging and frequently injured big names on defense without top box results, it limits what they can spend for offensive firepower. Our ability to consistently score enough points on O has been pretty pathetic since Ben retired. We need better balance.

 

BLAH BLAH BLAH

Tomlin's schemes are trite, boring, HE is the albatross, always will be. Teams TELL us they know what we are doing PRE SNAP. He sucks. "tackle the catch" BS

many still don't get it

all that talent last year and just middle of the pack in rankings.


YAWN, get ready for more of the same

this ain't LeBeau's defense....

 

They're also too predictable, and against good offenses, they're too often beaten before the snap. The only thing that saves the Steelers is the turnovers and the talent they have, but against top offenses, more often than not, it doesn't work, and nothing will change as long as Tomlin only hires yes men like Keith Butler or Austin as DC.

The numbers aren't bad, but they're exposed every time they play against a top offense, unless that offense shoots itself in the foot, which never happens in the playoffs. Not in the last six playoff games.

 

correct - gawd up the stats vs SUCK teams and SUCK vs good teams.

See crash and burn, 2024......

 

I am ok with the lack of balance on the CAP right now, because most of those players on offense are young drafted players on their first contract and obviously we don’t have the big salary on that side meaning the QB. What I am not ok with is the poor coaching especially on the defensive side and the lack of production for all the pedigree we have on that side of the ball.

 

One would think that Front Office people, GM/Ownership, would know they are providing good talent (and some top talent) and that the unit is not producing?
Maybe they should say something like "Mike, this is a very expensive group. What's going on?"
I would think that conversation is just basic management and part of year-end "how do we get better" conversations.

 

I don’t believe Khan has any authority over Tomlin. The only one who does is not strong in recognizing that he needs to hold Tomlin accountable. Dan Rooney was an excellent owner. Dan was strong and fair. He was the one who was responsible for the Steelers in 70’s and the Cowher teams and even Tomlins first few years. Art Jr. has allowed Tomlin free reign and it has really showed within the lack of production and growth of this team over the years relative to playoff success, etc. A limited coaching tree for Tomlin inspire of him being the longest tenured NFL coach says alot. The sad thing is I think Tomlin could be a great coach if he were held accountable and forced to give up control to the Assistant Coaches and actually hire legitimate Assistants.

 

My family and ties to the Rooney's go back a long way.
While I personally wasn't a 'close friend' my Dad was.
I would never, ever divulge anything remotely personal but I do know some of what they think.
I did work with/for Redskins for a long, long time,, which on the occasion allowed me to cross paths with these guys.

The Rooney's are wealthy but nowhere near the self absorbed a-holes that Snyder and Jones are.. (a few others, like that bastard in Atlanta.)
Of course we all know the Chief didn't have success from 1933 to 1969.
And we probably all feel the pain of selecting Rivera instead of Marino.. a Noll choice and Art never forgot.
That would have gotten a lot of coaches fired in it self.

Now I'll use a passage from a book where Art II did what I am always suggesting.

The problem is, we have a coach that doesn't have losing seasons.
But he does fall short in the playoffs, although he has a Ring and Appearances.

All this says is that I don't think he is a weak owner and doesn't turn his head but he has that annoying trait of 'sticking to his guys.' He will question the operation and I think it's a matter of how much does it take?

My angles has been the GM perspective. They are tasked as General Manager of the football team and if the coach is not getting the most out of the talents provided, and refuses to adapt and as claimed here, has assumed absolute power.. Then it's up to the GM to go to Rooney and provide details of the problem.

Maybe they are holding on to a belief that "we just missed" - I don't know.
But I know Art II is no Bob friggin Nutting who really deserves to be flogged in the center of town.

 

While competition level plays a part in it, the erratic performance of the defense IMO is tied to the vanilla schemes we run that fall back on the skill/talent of the individual players. When on their game (or against an inferior opponent), there may be a good amount of splash. If better competition schemes around those players, or they're simply off/injured, they get trounced. It's one of the reasons people say Watt "disappears" in playoff games.

I think Harmon was a very good add. I'm not sure why you think he's a liability against the run - his thick base, strength, and extension made him a plus run defender in college, with a chance to grow more (especially if he improves on finishing his tackles). He's good in the pass rush, too, but needs to develop some secondary moves to unlock his full potential at the pro level. But Day 1 he's a significant improvement over Ogunjobi.

I agree on the nickel CB, but I'm also less optimistic on Slay as a significant improvement over Jackson. He may be more a more consistent defender, but he wasn't much better across the metrics last year. He had nearly the same completion % against as Jackson, his QB rating against was 20 points worse, and his missed tackle % significantly worse.

Going back to my first point, I think they need to continue to blitz regardless of how confident they feel about a particular CB. There are two ways to improve your secondary: get better corners, and get more pressure on the QB. We ran our lowest blitz % in over eight years in '24. The bend-don't-break scheme put more pressure on individual players to make plays. While in Jackson's case this may have generated some splash plays, it also exposed flaws in his consistency in coverage.

 

As for how our stats looked last year. I think that a big part of that is that we have a lot of really great individual players, but we're not always playing as a team. We excel in one area at the expense of others when on defense. We also failed to pressure quarterbacks very often. Gave them all the time in the world to do whatever they want to do.

 

True, and the other thing is that opposing QBs often knew where to throw before the snap, so the steelers defense were beaten before the play even started. When it happens, the pass rush have no chance to put pressure, so it became useless.

It was a major problem since Brady was killing us almost every game, and the Steelers never made any major changes despite that.

 

The things that Brady used to do to us still makes me shudder to this day. That guy would just throw 8 to 15 yard passes up the middle all day long and we did nothing to even slow him down.

 

I begged for Barron before the draft, he would have solved many problems.