Behind the Steel Curtain
Steelers first-round rookie Derrick Harmon had a quiet preseason debut against the Jacksonville Jaguars on Aug. 9, ending the day with a blank stat sheet.
He quickly corrected that in his second-career preseason game a week later against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, logging one sack, one tackle for loss, and three total tackles.
While his first game was hardly cause for concern, it was the second that showed why Harmon went in the first round. It was an all-around performance that had both splash plays and proof that the Oregon product can handle the dirty work from down to down.
Here was Harmon’s first play against the Buccaneers – with mostly starters on the Tampa Bay offensive line – on Saturday. I originally clipped this play to highlight the contributions of two of his teammates, but the rookie impressed as well.
Harmon talked postgame about how he felt he used his “extension” better from preseason Week 1 to 2, and this play exemplifies it well. Harmon (No. 99) has an incredibly powerful upper half, and with one arm he shoves back the right guard, helping push the run back left and to an eventual tackle for loss.
A few plays later, Harmon showed his strength in a more subtle way. Initially combo blocked, he still worked his way into the path of the run, helping force another cutback and a short gain.
A few plays later was Harmon’s most underrated rep of the night, versus the combination of the Buccaneers’ Graham Barton and Ben Bredeson who he’d battle throughout the first quarter. Harmon helps collapse the pocket with a strong bull rush against Barton. Bredeson tries to help out and gets shoved to the ground with the defensive tackle’s free arm. You love to see it.
(A few other things I liked from the above play: Nick Herbig’s bend! Watch how Cole Holcomb mugging the B-gap throws off Bredeson’s balance — and some great power from Keeanu Benton! One of many great reps of team defensive line play on Saturday).
Going up against a rock-solid Buccaneers interior offensive line, the wins didn’t come easy to Harmon, but his efforts were still positive.
Here’s another solid rep against the Tampa Bay first team. Once again faced with two blockers, Harmon shows off some nice hand usage with a swim move to disengage Bredeson, even if he can’t power past Barton in time to prevent the touchdown throw.
But you can’t expect the one double-teamed lineman to be the one to sack the quarterback. It’s a solid play from the rookie.
Working against starting right guard Cody Mauch later in the game, Harmon can’t swim by, but he takes advantage of Mauch turning his body slightly to convert to a bull rush and collapse the pocket yet again on Teddy Bridgewater.
The next play was a good hustle effort from Harmon to disengage from two blockers and catch up with the run, still getting involved with the tackle.
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