The Steelers made several personnel tweaks on defense Sunday, and one beat writer expects them to continue. While the unit still awaits reinforcements with several injured starters down, they are still piecing things together. HC Mike Tomlin admitted as much in his opening remarks following the Steelers’ win over the Patriots, so that’s not a secret or anything.
One of the biggest personnel changes the Steelers made was incorporating ILB Cole Holcomb into the rotation, with Payton Wilson focusing more on passing downs. S Jabrill Peppers also played significant snaps, rotating with Juan Thornhill and Chuck Clark. Another change was NT Daniel Ekuale seeing a larger role, doing so against his former team, no less.
Ekuale played stout against the run, while both Holcomb and Peppers forced and/or recovered fumbles. Officially, Peppers isn’t credited with a fumble as of this writing, but if he didn’t cause it, he certainly set the table for T.J. Watt. The point is clear, though, that the Steelers’ personnel changes yielded immediate positive results.
“The changes could be longer-term”, Mike DeFabo writes for The Athletic. “The Steelers entered the game allowing 4.4 yards per carry. They went with a bigger, more physical inside linebacker in an attempt to rectify their problems on the ground”. On Peppers, he wrote that he is “beginning to carve out a role for himself and may continue to get playing time even after [DeShon] Elliott comes back from his knee injury”.
Some of the Steelers’ personnel changes were birthed by necessity. They only signed Peppers because of Elliott’s injury in the opener, after all. Now that he’s here, however, why shouldn’t he play if he’s playing well? Pittsburgh didn’t sign Thornhill to be a starter, and it didn’t even bring in Clark until training camp. The only reason the Steelers had a chance to sign Peppers was because the Patriots surprisingly cut him.
While that is a potentially positive change in the long term, the others should be concerning. More Ekuale means less Keeanu Benton, and if less Benton is a good thing, that’s—bad. Same with Payton Wilson, who should be a staple of this unit. The Steelers don’t want these personnel changes to be permanent, I’m sure. Rather, they want their starters to earn back their snaps, but they have to earn them first.
Both Wilson and Benton are young, or at least on the younger side. Benton is in his third season, though, and already faced scrutiny last year for a lack of development. Some beat writers are already predicting that the Steelers’ next major personnel change will be removing him from the starting lineup. One hopes, instead, that he justifies his place in the lineup, but until he does, people will question his progress.