The Pittsburgh Steelers defensive line must be a force in 2026. Cam Heyward must continue winning his battle against Father Time. Derrick Harmon and Yahya Black must make second-year jumps. Keeanu Benton must continue growing and capitalize in what will be a contract year without a summer extension.

What could their snap counts look like? Dave Bryan and I have spent some time talking about that in relation to Black and Benton, but it’s worth examining the group as a whole.

Last year, Pittsburgh’s defensive linemen played a combined 2,677 regular season snaps. Rounding that down to 2,600 for 2026 in the hope Pittsburgh’s defense is on the field less often, here are three scenarios of how it could look. One if the top five names are fully healthy, one if the group experiences some minor injuries, and one if the group experiences extended absences.

Totally Healthy – Entire Group Plays All 17 Games

Player
D-line Snaps

Harmon
755

Heyward
700

Benton
575

Black
250

Joseph-Day
250

Other
50

The ideal scenario is Harmon out-snapping Heyward, and that might seem surprising on the surface. But Harmon is poised for a big second year. The team should get every possible ounce out of him.

Heyward’s snaps have been more managed over the last two years, a trend that will only continue as he gets older. With Harmon and Heyward spoken for at end, Benton has fewer snaps available to him.

Black and Joseph-Day rotate behind as quality depth. The rest pickup just a handful of snaps.

Minor Injuries – Cam Heyward 15 games, Derrick Harmon 15 games, Keeanu Benton 16 games, Yahya Black 15 games, Sebastian Joseph-Day 16 games

Player
D-line Snaps

Harmon
667

Heyward
617

Benton
541

Black
271

Joseph-Day
340

Other
164

Black and Joseph-Day see more snaps even with their missed time. In the games they dress, they could play more snaps as injury fill-ins.

The “other” group sees a snap count spike more than triple the healthy scenario where Esezi Otomewo and others, Gabriel Rubio, Logan Lee, or Kevin Jobity Jr. could fill-in.

Serious Injuries – Cam Heyward 13 games, Derrick Harmon 11 games, Keeanu Benton 15 games, Yahya Black 14 games, Sebastian Joseph-Day 15 games

Player
D-line Snaps

Harmon
488

Heyward
535

Benton
507

Black
253

Joseph-Day
319

Other
498

This is a scenario Pittsburgh will want to avoid. The “other” group plays more than Harmon or Heyward individually, with Heyward out-snapping Harmon by virtue of playing in more games. Still, no one is playing more than half of the team’s expected 1,100 defensive snaps this year.

Obviously, these are just a few ways to break down possible outcomes. It’s not worth going through such a fine-tooth comb to map out every possibility of in-game injuries and blowouts where players will get subbed out and subbed on. This is just one exercise in how Pittsburgh’s defensive line snaps could form.

Clearly, the more the starters play, the better. The Steelers have to be strong in the trenches or else the other defensive changes, or offensive ones for that matter, won’t mean much.