Dupree can help pass rush

because of a decision to forego hernia surgery in the spring in hopes it would heal on its own.

It didn’t. He was placed on injured reserve, had the surgery the first week of September and returned at midseason.

Dupree came on strongly from that point, started four of the seven games in which he played and registered 4.5 sacks. But what might have he accomplished had the surgery taken place in the spring, when the injury was first diagnosed?

“He had the injury last year that was kind of our fault that he didn’t get to play, but, when he came back, he played good for us,” linebackers coach Joey Porter said. “I just need to know what that looks for 16 games. He gave us a good tease at the end and made some splash plays for us, but I would love to have that from Week 1 through the playoffs.”

So would Dupree, who plans to play in his first preseason game of this summer Saturday at Heinz Field against the Indianapolis Colts. An ankle injury kept him out of the first two games and off the practice field much of training camp.

“I still practiced, I just fought through it,” Dupree said. “I didn’t want to risk it, to be ready for the season.”

He and Porter said he is all of that.

“Bud’s in a good situation where he’s in his third year,” Porter said. “We definitely expect big things.”

Said Dupree, “It’s going to be a great year, definitely,” adding that his goals are to get “as many tackles and sacks as I can.”

This could be the team’s best group of outside linebackers in quite some time. An outside linebacker hasn’t led the team by himself with more than five sacks since Jason Worilds had eight in 2013.

With Watt, James Harrison (who led the Steelers with five sacks in a part-time role last season), Arthur Moats, Anthony Chickillo and Dupree, the Steelers have the makings of a good, deep group. Along with ends Cam Heyward and Stephon Tuitt, it could be one of their best pass-rushing defenses in years as well.

They might need it to help a weak secondary.

“It helps out tremendously,” Heyward said of an effective pass rush coming from different sides. “Then you can’t just single out one or two guys. It puts us in a good situation in the back end; when you get that pass rush, it makes our coverage a lot better.”

Everyone involved would be all for that. While Watt starts on the right side with Harrison at the ready, Dupree will start on the left with Moats behind him.

And as Heyward said, “The best Bud is a healthy Bud.”

“He has stuff on tape and in playoff games so that we know he can do it,” Porter said. “The thing is getting him to the stadium healthy week to week and have another guy on the other side of him pushing him just as hard as he is. And with some good guys in the rotation, I think we can really be effective and help the defense and bring those sacks we’ve been missing.”

That is the plan anyway.