{"id":260290,"date":"2025-08-04T05:10:10","date_gmt":"2025-08-04T05:10:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/260290\/"},"modified":"2025-08-04T05:10:10","modified_gmt":"2025-08-04T05:10:10","slug":"steelers-pass-rushers-switching-sides-something-that-we-need-to-do-says-alex-highsmith","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/260290\/","title":{"rendered":"Steelers Pass Rushers Switching Sides ‘Something That We Need To Do,’ Says Alex Highsmith"},"content":{"rendered":"

For years, the Pittsburgh Steelers\u2019 greatest strength has been their pass rush. T.J. Watt, Cam Heyward and company have terrorized opposing offenses. However, near the end of last season, they were less effective. Watt in particular had far less of an impact<\/a> than he usually does, not recording a sack over the Steelers\u2019 final three regular season games. This year, the Steelers are trying something a little different on defense, flirting with the idea of moving Watt and Alex Highsmith around. Highsmith recently shared his thoughts on that concept.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re definitely trying to do that because, I know for us, we\u2019ve played on the same side for at least my whole career,\u201d Highsmith said Sunday via the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette\u2019s YouTube channel.<\/a> \u201cI\u2019ve been on the right. He\u2019s been on the left. Also, in college, my last two years I was mainly on the right.<\/p>\n

\u201cDuring this camp, being uncomfortable because I think it\u2019s something that we need to do just to switch it up to give different looks to the offense,\u201d Highsmith added. \u201cI think we\u2019ve done a good job at trying to practice that during camp.\u201d<\/p>\n

Highsmith is correct that, since he got to Pittsburgh, he and Watt have been rooted on their respective sides of the defense. Early in his career, Watt played on the right side, but he switched over, feeling more comfortable rushing from the left.<\/p>\n

In the past, Watt expressed that he\u2019s had difficulties<\/a> trying to move over and play at right outside linebacker. He and Highsmith were having a lot of success as a duo, too. There was no reason to mess with that formula.<\/p>\n

However, with Watt getting schemed out of games now more than ever, it might be time to add a new wrinkle to his game.<\/a> But moving Watt also means moving Highsmith. Highsmith is most comfortable rushing from the right side, but he\u2019s working to expand his game.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was working both sides this offseason,\u201d Highsmith said. \u201cWhen it comes to working on the run game on that side, working with different moves. I\u2019m not over there often, so when I\u2019m over there, I try to just work a couple moves and stick to those and try to perfect those.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Steelers haven\u2019t shown a ton of looks with Highsmith and Watt flipped. It doesn\u2019t seem like something they\u2019re going to do often. However, they\u2019re working to implement it into their defense. They could use it in certain situations to confuse offenses.<\/p>\n

Last year, the Steelers flipped Watt and Highsmith a handful of times. It wasn\u2019t a big enough sample size to be notable, though. That could change this year, with both pass rushers putting in time and effort to get used to switching.<\/p>\n

It can be difficult for players to switch sides and continue to play at a high level. Watt and Highsmith are both great players, though. They\u2019re working hard to be as impactful as they can be this year. That means getting used to being uncomfortable sometimes.<\/a> Mike Tomlin likes to say that the Steelers don\u2019t seek comfort. This experiment supports that idea. We\u2019ll see how much the Steelers employ it when games start.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For years, the Pittsburgh Steelers\u2019 greatest strength has been their pass rush. T.J. Watt, Cam Heyward and company…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":260291,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2055],"tags":[6310,7,6,520,12744,57,2360,426,5226],"class_list":{"0":"post-260290","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-pittsburgh-steelers","8":"tag-alex-highsmith","9":"tag-football","10":"tag-nfl","11":"tag-pittsburgh","12":"tag-pittsburgh-post-gazette","13":"tag-pittsburgh-steelers","14":"tag-pittsburghsteelers","15":"tag-steelers","16":"tag-t-j-watt"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/114968777590605567","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260290","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=260290"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260290\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/260291"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=260290"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=260290"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=260290"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}