Porter: Jones needs to play more at OLB
Steelers outside linebackers coach Joey Porter is pushing for Jarvis Jones to get more playing time during the second half of the season.
Steelers outside linebackers Jarvis Jones (95) and Anthony Chickillo converge on Patriots quarterback Tom Brady during the second half of last Sunday’s game at Heinz Field.
PITTSBURGH – Jarvis Jones sat at his locker following the Steelers’ 27-16 loss last Sunday against the New England Patriots looking despondent.
Jones just had one of his best games in the NFL – seven tackles, including one for a loss, a quarterback hit, forced fumble and recovery – showing up all over the Steelers’ defensive stat sheet, but it wasn’t enough to help secure a win over New England.
Jones’ production might not sound all that great until you realize he was only on the field for 33 of Pittsburgh’s 57 defensive plays.
The problem for Jones is that no matter how well he plays, he’ll be judged by one statistic and one statistic only – sacks.
“That’s what we’re always measured by, we know that,” said Jones, who has one of Pittsburgh’s three interceptions and one of the team’s five fumble recoveries.
Pittsburgh, which is 4-3 heading into this week’s bye, has just eight sacks in its first seven games, the lowest total in the league. Just 2.5 of those have come from the outside linebackers, including none from Jones or James Harrison, who have largely split time at the right outside linebacker position.
Harrison, second on the team’s all-time sack list with 74.5, 2.5 behind leader Jason Gildon, has a track record of getting to the quarterback, though age might finally be catching up to him.
Unfortunately for Jones, the team’s 2013 first-round draft pick, he has five in 43 career games. It’s a big reason why the team chose not to pick up his 2017 option, meaning he will become a free agent at the end of this season.
“We could talk about how close and all that stuff, but it is what it is. We’ve got to win,” Steelers outside linebackers coach Joey Porter said of one-on-one matchups Wednesday. “We’re working at it each week to get better. We just haven’t found the right formula.”
That’s something the Steelers are working on during its bye week.
Porter has a plan to fix the problem and it involves more of Jones and perhaps less of the 38-year-old Harrison on the field.
“He definitely needs to be on the field more,” Porter said. “I’m trying to make sure he’s out there, but with Harrison, I can’t let him sit for a long time because he’s an older guy. If he doesn’t get in there at some point and time and get warmed up, it’s hard for that 38-year-old body to get going. So I have to get him in the game or riding a bike to keep him warm. But Jarvis is definitely playing real, real well to this point.”
The Steelers have, at times, flipped Jones to the left side to get him more playing time, but in recent games stuck with a rotation of Jones and Anthony Chickillo playing together, with Harrison and Arthur Moats paired, as well.
Jones has played nearly 60 percent of the team’s defensive snaps, the most of any of the team’s outside linebackers. Moats is second, with Harrison and Chickillo trailing.
That rotation could change in the next few weeks when the Steelers get 2015 first-round draft pick Bud Dupree back.
Dupree opened this season on injured reserve with a sports hernia that required surgery. He is eligible to come off injured reserve next week and has been working with the team’s trainers recently with that in mind.
The Steelers had planned on a starting duo of Jones and Dupree when training camp opened, but that was put on the back burner with the latter’s injury.
“We know he’s been out of ball for a while,” said Porter. “We’ll be able to evaluate him as he comes in and practices and see what he’s doing from that standpoint. I know from a mental standpoint, we’re not doing anything different. He’s been sitting in the meeting room. He’s going to be fine there. It’s really about him getting out on the field and doing it. He hasn’t been doing it in a long time. All that time training and getting ready and then missing that time, you can’t just say you’re going to go out there and pick up where you left off. That doesn’t happen like that.”
But it could be a boost to a defense that isn’t making many plays. Regardless, something has to change.
“I tell those guys all the time, ‘We’re in Pittsburgh. We play outside linebacker. We’re going to get judged by production in the sack game,'” Porter said. “If you have nine or 10 tackles, that’s all good but we’re going to get judged for (sacks). Until (Jones) does that, you aren’t going to see the good things he is doing better than he has.”
Tight end Ladarius Green made it through his second day of full practice and said he felt fine Wednesday. Green opened the season on the PUP list after having offseason ankle surgery. … Quarterback Landry Jones said while it is good starter Ben Roethlisberger has attended the team’s past two practices and was able to get some throwing in, he’s still not sure who the team’s starter will be when the Steelers travel to Baltimore Nov. 6. … The Steelers will be off until Monday.