LAKE FOREST, Ill. — When dealing with the Pittsburgh Steelers’ defense, the first position group to prioritize a game plan for is the edge rushers. T.J. Watt, Nick Herbig and Alex Highsmith have combined for 18 of the team’s 33 total sacks, and the trio has accounted for 90 total quarterback pressures.

Head coach Ben Johnson described Watt and Highsmith as “werewolves,” who possess some of the best first steps in the NFL. There is an important rule that a quarterback must follow when playing those types of defenders who have such a quick get-off.

“Those guys on the edge, I think they do a phenomenal job and put a lot of stress on the quarterback,” Johnson said. “So, we have to be very disciplined in the depth of the pocket from a quarterback perspective, make sure we’re not getting too deep because they can run around and tackle in a hurry. It doesn’t matter who you are in this league, they’re darn good players.”

This means that Caleb Williams must play at the proper depth required on a specific concept. Offensive coordinator Declan Doyle highlighted what could happen if Williams isn’t disciplined in that area of his game.

“They (Pittsburgh’s edge rushers) can get to the top of that pocket pretty quickly and so you’ve got to make sure that as the quarterback continues to lose depth, you start to put the tackles in a challenging position where they don’t know where the quarterback is,” Doyle said. “They’re always trying to put themselves between the rusher and the ball and so the deeper you get, the harder that becomes on those tackles.”

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Of course, Williams doesn’t want to make the job for offensive tackles Theo Benedet and Darnell Wright any harder, especially since the two are dealing with injuries. Benedet appeared on Thursday’s injury report for the first time this week with a quad injury and was limited. Wright also had a limited designation for the first two practices with a pectoral and back injury.

The health status of Benedet and Wright will be important to monitor as the team heads into the final practice of the week. But where Williams’ feet are during his dropback will also be under the microscope this week.

“Usually, if you’re past 10, it’s kind of a dangerous zone, especially with good edge rushers, and it really just relates to anytime we are in gun, five-step, feel where you got to be conscious of not to have huge steps getting back there,” backup quarterback Tyson Bagent said. “If you do, just really an emphasis of stepping up in the pocket.”

Bagent explained that when the team sees a dropback on film that is beyond 10 yards, the tape will be paused and the problem addressed. Williams must be conscious of where the ball is on the field to help limit the stress on the offensive tackles. With the Bears playing at Soldier Field, Bagent mentioned that using the verbal cadence and switching it up can help mitigate the pass rush. As well as implementing tempo and using no-huddle could help throw off the timing for the Steelers’ edge rushers.

Williams’ ability to avoid sacks contributes to him holding the ball longer, as he has the highest time to throw among quarterbacks with at least 90 pass attempts at 3.24 seconds, according to Next Gen Stats. But the second-year quarterback has been sacked just 16 times, which is tied for the 25th least in the league.

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Even though Williams can scramble, Doyle doesn’t believe it’s an issue for his pocket depth because of the principal details that are within each play.

“It doesn’t change from this week to when we started training camp,” Doyle said. “So on a given concept we’re going to expect him at a certain yardage and if he’s beyond that he needs to be stepping up into that pocket and that’s why the interior portion of the protection is really important as well, to be able to establish an area that he can step into and still keep his eyes down the field.”

As always, the small details on every rep will become pivotal in the Week 12 matchup between the Bears and Steelers. And one more extra step in either direction could be the difference between a sack and an explosive play for the offense.