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Steelers’ front 7 excited about defensive changes

By Jim Wexell for The 5 min read
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LATROBE — In one of the early camp practices, Ben Roethlisberger stepped up past some traffic, rolled right to avoid even more of it and heaved a ball downfield to fullback Will Johnson, who was running a dig route.

Johnson thought for sure he was running under a touchdown pass as it spiraled down to earth, but a linebacker got a finger on it just in time to break up what should’ve been a 50-yard completion.

A linebacker?

“Yeah, Shazier,” Johnson said of last year’s first-round draft pick, Ryan Shazier.

That’s not supposed to happen against linebackers, is it?

“No,” Johnson said. “But Shazier, he’s fast.”

Johnson said Shazier’s “about five yards” faster than the typical inside linebacker. “Yeah, he’s pretty quick. Quick to burst,” Johnson said. “He covers a lot of ground, believe it or not.”

It was seen. And believed. That’s the type of inside linebacker the Steelers envisioned when they drafted Shazier in the first round last year.

If they considered Lawrence Timmons to be the next Derrick Brooks, when Mike Tomlin made Timmons his first ever draft pick in 2007, what did the Steelers consider Shazier?

“Rare air,” Tomlin said on draft day.

Speed and rare speed. That’s what the Steeler have inside this season, and that’s part of the reason they’ll be running more cover-2 looks this year.

Tomlin has stepped up daily to coach his secondary on the nuances of cover-2, and new defensive coordinator Keith Butler has confirmed with reporters that he plans to call “much more cover-2.”

Under Dick LeBeau, the Steelers primarily used cover-3 with the large cushions on the edges to give them a three-deep look. However, that was a departure from the 1970s, when Chuck Noll and Bud Carson preached cover-2 and Tony Dungy soaked it up, added his special touches and re-emerged with the “Tampa 2” that Tomlin learned so well on the way to a 2002 championship.

The defense has come full circle back to Pittsubrgh, and like Jack Lambert before them, Shazier and Timmons are key to the coverage because of their ability to drop deep to make up for the fact the Steelers have two deep safeties instead of three.

Once the coaching staff feels comfortable that this Steelers secondary understands the nuances, they’ll use more cover-2, but with an odd front. And that will allow both Shazier and Timmons to use their speed in coverage down the middle.

“I’ll go back, sometimes Lawrence goes back,” Shazier said. “It just depends on how the coaches feel, what they want to call.”

There will be a difference in the style of play up front as well.

“We’re learning like a whole different scheme,” said second-year defensive lineman Stephon Tuitt. “We’ll still control our gap and we still want our linebackers free to be able to make plays, but the defensive line is being taught to play that 3-technique and be dominant.”

Three-technique defensive tackles penetrate and, theoretically, dominate. Those are the kinds of players the Steelers have up front in Tuitt and Cameron Heyward, so an alteration in style only makes sense.

As former Steelers safety Ryan Clark pointed out a day after sitting in a team meeting, the Steelers didn’t sign Heyward to a $59.3 million contract extension to take on blockers and free up linebackers. These front seven players will be penetrating more this season.

“We’re definitely putting more emphasis on it,” Heyward said. “But when we do go cover-2 against pass protection, we’ve got to get home more.”

Heyward “got home” 7.5 times last season to tie former linebacker Jason Worilds for the team lead in sacks. It was the most by a Steelers defensive lineman since Aaron Smith had eight in 2004.

With an increased emphasis on getting to the quarterback this season, perhaps Heyward has loftier statistical goals in mind.

“There’s going to be more expected,” he said, “but who’s to say they’re not going to counter and double me and open up other guys? That’s when we have to take advantage of those.”

Will Heyward feel pressure to put up numbers this season?

“If there is, there is. But I put my own pressure on myself,” he said. “That’s how I feel. If I’m not reaching my goals, screw the other goals. I’ve got to hit my goals and my goals are to win as many games as possible by any means necessary.

“If we go 16-0, why would I complain if I only have five sacks? You’ve got to put your individual goals aside because you want the team to win.”

If the Steeles win, no one will complain about the new defensive approach. Not even the old two-gap ball coach, John Mitchell, who’s taught one primary scheme to his linemen since joining Bill Cowher’s staff in 1994.

“You know Mitch is an old-school coach and he believes in all that stuff and he did it well,” said Tuitt. “But I think he likes this. Some of the same things that we do, even when we two-gap, we’ve still got responsibilities and techniques, so you can’t beat that.”

Not if it works.

Again.

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