At the end of the 2024 season, the defensive line turned into a weakness for the Pittsburgh Steelers. There are still some issues with Derrick Harmon being injured and Cam Heyward being non-committal on his status ahead of Week 1. While it’s not perfect, it certainly has more depth than last year across the line. According to Pro Football Focus’s Dalton Wasserman, the Steelers present a bad matchup for the New York Jets.

“This is the concern for me,” Wasserman said in a video posted to PFF’s YouTube channel. “Look, for an offense [Jets] that’s going to be trying to figure things out, and figure out who their foundational players are; who are the keepers long-term, it’s a bad matchup. This is not the team you want to play… The first thing you’ve got to worry about with the Steelers, more than Aaron Rodgers or any of that, is this defensive line. If you can’t block them, good luck to you.”

Given the Heyward news and Harmon’s unfortunate injury, it’s fair to have some concerns about this unit. There’s a possibility neither of those two plays, which leaves a rotation including Isaiahh Loudermilk, Keeanu Benton, and Yahya Black to take their place. There’s potential there, but not much proven consistency.

That’s more concerning for the Steelers against a team like the Jets. They’ve got one of the best backfield tandems in the league with Breece Hall and Braelon Allen. Steelers fans are also familiar with Justin Fields and his ability with the ball in his hands. Stopping the run is critical for the Steelers to have any chance at a win this week.

But Pittsburgh’s defensive line is a unit Wasserman has been high on for a while now.  He thinks they’ll live up to the task on Sunday.

“I have the Steelers 17-13 in this game. Now, the offensive line injuries mean to me, the Jets could even score less than that. I think it’s going to be ugly,” Wasserman said.

The job does get easier for Pittsburgh with the Jets suffering an unfortunate injury this week. Alijah Vera-Tucker, a starting guard and a recently named captain, has now gone down with a season-ending injury.

While the interior of Pittsburgh’s defensive line doesn’t have much depth, they should be successful this week as New York takes a hit with Vera-Tucker going down. On the edge, tackle Armand Membou starts the first game of his career, and he’ll have to face some talented Pittsburgh edge rushers.

It should be a close and likely ugly football game. It will be won in the trenches, which Wasserman thinks the Steelers are capable of doing against the Jets.