Steelers’ defensive line starting to take shape
LATROBE – Listening to John Mitchell chew out his defensive linemen on a daily basis, you’d think he’s never happy with the group.
Nothing could be further from the truth.
With the group the Steelers’ defensive line/assistant head coach has this season, including veteran ends Cam Heyward and Stephon Tuitt and second-year nose tackle Javon Hargrave, Mitchell knows he has a solid starting unit. But he’s just as excited about the team’s line depth with the addition of veteran free agent Tyson Alualu, a former starter in Jacksonville, to go along with L.T. Walton, Daniel McCullers and Johnny Maxey, each of whom gained valuable experience last season.
“With the addition of Tyson and L.T. Walton, who is a good young football player, and Big Dan, I’m happy where we are. Will I be happy next week? I don’t know. But I’m happy right now.”
The reason Mitchell is so happy is he’s thinking less will be more with Heyward and Tuitt.
It has not been uncommon the past two seasons to see Heyward and Tuitt play 90 percent of the snaps in a game. And the health of those two has been an issue.
Tuitt missed two games in each of the past two seasons and suffered a knee injury in a playoff win at Kansas City that limited his play in a season-ending AFC Championship loss at New England.
Heyward had never missed a game in his six-year career before suffering a hamstring injury and torn pectoral muscle last season that limited him to seven games.
But those injuries could pay some dividends this season in several ways. With Heyward out, Tuitt took on more of a leadership role for the defense. And the Steelers had to play Walton, McCullers and Maxey in critical situations.
“You want your better ballplayers in the game in the last five minutes, because that’s when a lot of ballgames are decided,” Mitchell said. “If you have healthy and fresh players in the game, it gives you an edge. If we can play Tuitt and Cam 50 plays and let Tyson get 25 and L.T. 25, we’ll be better.”
Tuitt and Heyward are OK with that less-is-more approach.
“You see guys like L.T., Maxey, even Hargrave get a lot of reps and find their groove throughout the year and hope they take the next step,” Heyward said.
Heyward had 14 1/2 sacks in 2014 and 2015, establishing himself as one of the team’s best pass rushers. After having 6 1/2 sacks in his first season as a starter in 2015, Tuitt’s production fell off to four last season.
The 24-year-old went to Mitchell in the offseason to find out what he needs to do to make sure he gets to the quarterback.
“We sat down and watched every game, every play that he made,” Mitchell said. “And we talked about the things that he did well and the things that he didn’t and what I saw. I said, ‘Hey, if you do these things, you can be a premiere player in this league.’ He’s still hungry. He’s an exceptional athlete. The thing people have to realize is that this guy came out early (for the draft). He’s still a young guy. He’s growing every day.”
Tuitt’s interest in improvement, and the defensive line’s improvement in general, is the reason why Mitchell, a noted taskmaster, seems so high on the group.
“I want these guys to realize, when it means more to me as a coach than it does to you, we’ve got a problem,” he said. “I want you to feel my pain and I want to feel yours. It’s not you versus me. It’s us, together. When they don’t play well on Sunday, that’s a reflection on Coach Mitch. And it’s hard to go home and look myself in the mirror and say I did a good job that week. I have a tough time living with that.”
Mitchell believes the defensive line is ready to produce this season, to the point the Steelers won’t have to blitz as much.
“I think the four-man rush is going to be really good,” he said. “Cam has matured. Tuitt is really good. (Hargrave) is right there. With the two outside linebackers, Coach (Joey) Porter and I are really excited about the rush we’re going to have.”