Williams will play more at ILB this year
Veteran to be used on passing downs
After much searching and debating, the Steelers have found the inside linebacker to pair with Devin Bush.
He has NFL experience, an aggressive attitude and loves to play the position.
His name is Vince Williams — remember him? — and he will serve the interior of the defense better than Jon Bostic, Morgan Burnett and Mark Barron, the most recent pretenders to the position. At least, that’s what the Steelers think — and are hoping — as they get ready to start on their 2020 season.
After an offseason of wondering who would replace Barron and if the Steelers would look to free agency for a replacement, the Steelers have decided that Williams, who enters his eighth NFL season, will play the majority of time next to Bush.
They still will use a hybrid safety to play the position in passing situations, just not as frequently as they did last year when Barron played 750 snaps — nearly double the amount played by Williams (396). They will use their training camp, limited as it might be with 14 padded practices, to choose between linebacker Ulysees Gilbert III, thirdyear safety Marcus Allen and rookie safety Antoine Brooks to fill that role.
Otherwise, Williams is expected to play the bulk of the snaps alongside Bush, and the Steelers will keep their fingers crossed he can handle some coverage matchups against
running backs and tight ends.
That never has been one of Williams’ strengths. He is known primarily as a run stuffer, not to mention a good blitzer, something even he acknowledged recently. In a Twitter post the other day, Williams said: “Y’all don’t know how many times I wish I could have been born ten years earlier. If I played against 21 personnel 80% of the time I’d be a legend.”
The “21” reference was football parlance for two running backs, one tight end, an old-time traditional alignment in which teams relied predominantly on the running game. But the NFL has gone away from that in the past five years, with teams rarely using a fullback and sometimes no running backs. The reliance on throwing the football is the reason the Steelers have experimented with hybrid safeties such as Burnett and Barron playing the linebacker position in their subpackages. That became especially true when opposing quarterbacks started picking on Williams when they created a mismatch.
The Steelers, however, will play eight games against 12 of the top rushing teams in the league in 2019, including five against the top nine teams. Those include Baltimore (first), Tennessee (third), Buffalo (eighth) and Houston (ninth). They also have games against Philadelphia (11th) and Cleveland (12th).
While the Ravens are the only team to have more rushing yards (3,296) than passing yards (3,225) last season, the ability of the other teams to run the ball successfully will at least cause the Steelers to rely more on Williams than they did in 2019. The Steelers ranked 14th against the rush last season, allowing an average of 109.6 yards per game.
Another factor is the lack of offseason practice time because of the COVID-19 pandemic, which wiped out OTAs and minicamp and forced the cancellation of preseason games. That has forced coach Mike Tomlin to rely on veterans who are familiar with the system and the coaching staff. Williams, 30, knows the defense as well as any player on the team.
• NOTE — The Steelers have signed running back and West Virginia alum Wendell Smallwood to a one-year deal. Smallwood, a fifth-round pick by the Eagles in 2016, played in 15 games for Washington last season.