Preseason is the time for rebuilding defense
Everyone’s itching to know how the Steelers will fare defensively after an offseason in which they lost three starters and one respected veteran. New outside linebacker, new cornerback, new faces — and a puzzle to fit them all into.
For now, all we can do is speculate on how the unit will coalesce, but at least we have a couple days of practice with all hands on deck to evaluate who’s in the mix. The what — what it looks like Week 1, what it can do with new pieces and what it can’t do — will come later.
“We’ll see what we’ve got when we get in the preseason,” defensive coordinator Keith Butler said Friday. “The best thing about this year is we’ve got [four] preseason games where we can evaluate people. Last year, we didn’t have one. It’s going to be good for us to get that evaluation.”
But last year, the starting defense was pretty much set for months before the season started. The whole secondary was back, mostly everyone in the linebacking
corps was back and the whole defensive line was back.
This year, Bud Dupree is gone from a fearsome passrush. Steven Nelson and Mike Hilton are no longer key cogs in a ball-hawking secondary. And three days ago, inside linebacker Vince Williams suddenly retired, leaving the Steelers without their longest-tenured defender behind Cam Heyward.
“All of us think we can play longer than we can,” said Butler, a former NFL linebacker. “I think Vince just realized at the time his body wasn’t ready to play, he wasn’t ready to play, so he decided to retire.”
The Steelers might be better off there than the other positions with big shoes to fill. After all, Devin Bush is coming back from the knee injury that ended his season in Week 5 last year, and in his absence came the breakout campaign from one-time backup Robert Spillane.
Those two seem like locks to start at inside linebacker, but things are less settled at outside linebacker. Now that three-time Pro Bowler Melvin Ingram is in the picture, as of Monday afternoon, T.J. Watt’s running mate is up in the air. Watt said Thursday that all he knows is he’ll be the left outside linebacker, and whatever happens on the other side, he’s excited to work with Dupree’s replacement.
“Both of them might be in there at the same time, and they probably will, because we’re going to rest T.J. some, too,” said Butler, who wouldn’t commit to Highsmith starting and Ingram coming off the bench. “We feel like we’ve got three good players there, so hopefully that will help us keep the same numbers with our pass-rush in terms of sacks and stuff like that.”
Easier said than done, considering the 2020 Steelers led the league in sacks, quarterback hits and pressures. Of course, one of the ingredients that goes into making that sack souffle is solid coverage on the back end, and the Steelers have no shortage of questions there, as well.
With Joe Haden and Cam Sutton slotted into the outside cornerback spots, a camp competition is in store for the nickel role left vacant by Hilton. On the first day of practice, second-year sixthround pick Antoine Brooks worked with the starters. On Friday, it was 28-year-old journeyman Arthur Maulet, signed in early May, who had the first snap on the first team.
“He’s a proven NFL dude,” Tomlin said of the 5foot-9, 190-pound Maulet, who started five games last season for the Jets. “He plays hard on [special] teams. He’s shown an aptitude in terms of playing in the slot — the blitzing, the physicality, even though we haven’t had an opportunity to do it in this setting. He’s not a rookie. He has a reputation and a resume, so we’re utilizing that to make some early decisions in terms of getting exposure to him.”
Indeed, as Tomlin noted, Maulet won’t be able to try out his best Hilton impression until he gets a chance to hit like Hilton. Butler also pumped the brakes on
Brooks — who picked off a Ben Roethlisberger pass in Thursday’s session — being a starter in his second season, and Tomlin added that he could still audition other players in that role, such as rookie seventh-round pick Tre Norwood.
As of now, Norwood is trying to learn the ropes in case he’s the backup free safety to Minkah Fitzpatrick. For that reason, the candidates to be the third cornerback could change by the week, or even by the day.
“Right now, we’re working Art and Brooks there, but there will be times you’ll see some other guys,” Tomlin said. “Just right now, we’ve been focused on those two. … We don’t want to give too many people too many things to focus on. We’re keeping them locked down and letting them work [one position] for a couple days. We’ll have a meeting of the minds and determine who’s going to move where for the next block of days.”