Steelers Now
The messaging from the Pittsburgh Steelers organization was clear throughout the offseason: they wanted to reestablish their identity as a physical defense that owned the line of scrimmage. That direction came as no surprise after Mike Tomlin’s club was unceremoniously blasted by the division rival Baltimore Ravens to the tune of 299 rushing yards in another Wild Card weekend defeat. Despite the investments made throughout the offseason, it’s looked like more of the same from this group throughout the first two weeks of the season. Currently, this unit ranks 28th in rushing EPA/play and 20th in rushing success rate, marks that are unacceptable for a team vying for a seat at the table in the AFC.
Most notably, youngsters like nose tackle Keeanu Benton and off-ball backer Payton Wilson are off to tough starts and haven’t made the necessary leaps that the team was clearly betting on. While Teryl Austin and company await the return of first-round selection Derrick Harmon, they’ve begun scouring the free agent market for contingency plans. Their most recent addition is Ja’Whaun Bentley, a 29-year-old with 69 career starts up the middle, who now joins his former teammate Jabrill Peppers in the steel city. With the New England Patriots completely turning over their coaching staff under Mike Vrabel, the veteran is now looking for a fresh start now that he’s fully healthy from a torn pectoral injury that wiped away the vast majority of his 2024 campaign.
Beyond simply helmet scouting, Bentley’s game is very reminiscent of Elandon Roberts, who was an early-down contributor for the Steelers defense over the past couple of seasons. In a somewhat surprising move, he was let go during free agency in favor of Malik Harrison for special teams flexibility, but he’s now on injured reserve for the time being. Run-down thumpers are often some of the more underappreciated players on NFL teams, primarily due to the league being typecast as a passing league, but with the run game being back in vogue, so to speak, this archetype of player holds value. Statistics back that up as well. Last season, the Steelers allowed 3.7 yards per carry on the 236 snaps that Roberts was on the field compared to 5.3 yards per carry when he was on the sideline, per SIS. We know that on/off splits carry plenty of variables; however, there is a two-year sample size of data that clearly matches the eye test.
Elandon Roberts has been absolutely awesome versus the run this year.
He's brought physicality back to the ILB position in the Burgh. pic.twitter.com/xP3yLj7cY8
— Derrick (@Steelers_DB) November 14, 2023
Even though it’s too early to hit the panic button on this group as a whole, the defense needs to get things figured out quickly before the schedule toughens up over the second half of the season. Assuming he won’t take long to get back into football shape, promoting Bentley to the active roster is a move that could pay dividends for...
