{"id":267391,"date":"2025-08-06T21:54:16","date_gmt":"2025-08-06T21:54:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/267391\/"},"modified":"2025-08-06T21:54:16","modified_gmt":"2025-08-06T21:54:16","slug":"best-ever-juan-thornhill-sets-high-standard-for-steelers-defense","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/267391\/","title":{"rendered":"Best Ever? Juan Thornhill Sets High Standard for Steelers Defense"},"content":{"rendered":"

Steelers News<\/a><\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"PittsburghPittsburgh Steelers safety Juan Thornhill at minicamp on June 10, 2025. — Ed Thompson \/ Steelers Now\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

UNITY TWP, Pa. \u2014 Years down the line, fans will put together lists naming the stingiest NFL defenses ever. Of course, the 2000 Baltimore Ravens come to mind. The 1985 Chicago Bears<\/a>, too. And then there\u2019s the 2025 Pittsburgh Steelers.<\/p>\n

Steelers<\/a> safety Juan Thornhill made it known after Wednesday\u2019s training camp practice. The group he\u2019s been working alongside at St. Vincent College over the past two weeks can be special.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it could be one of the best of all time,\u201d Thornhill said. \u201cAnd I\u2019m putting that in the air right now \u2014 one of the best of all time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Led by a pair of four-time first-team Associated Press All-Pros in Cam Heyward and T.J. Watt, the unit consists of a plethora of noteworthy names. Defensive back Jalen Ramsey has three such nods. Another secondary addition, Darius Slay, has made six Pro Bowls.<\/p>\n

Another Steelers safety, DeShon Elliott, said last month<\/a> that he sees the Steelers\u2019 defense being a top-5 unit in the league and \u201cmaybe even No. 1.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cLiterally, we\u2019ve got pieces everywhere,\u201d Thornhill said. \u201cLook at the roster, look at who we have. It\u2019s incredible. Literally, I don\u2019t feel like there\u2019s a weakness on the defense. If you look at most teams, you know you\u2019ve got the fish out there, the one or two people that\u2019s like, \u2018Eh, I\u2019m not sure.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cBut, with us, we\u2019ve got a front that\u2019s unbelievable, linebackers that\u2019s great and DBs that can cover anyone.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"PittsburghPittsburgh Steelers linebacker Patrick Queen, cornerback Jalen Ramsey and safety DeShon Elliott at training camp on July 26, 2025. \u2014 Ed Thompson \/ Steelers Now<\/p>\n

Thornhill is one of the guys tasked with replacing Minkah Fitzpatrick, who was shipped to the Miami Dolphins in the trade that brought Ramsey to Pittsburgh. With everyone around him, he\u2019s excited for the opportunities that could pop up.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019ve got guys up front, then we\u2019ve got guys on the corner that can cover guys very well,\u201d Thornhill said. \u201cThat (forces) the quarterback to throw the ball to the middle of the field a lot more, which allows me to make more plays on the ball.\u201d<\/p>\n

Alan Saunders contributed to reporting for this story.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tMentioned In This Article: Cam Heyward<\/a> Juan Thornhill<\/a> Pittsburgh Steelers<\/a> Steelers<\/a> T.J. Watt<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Steelers News Pittsburgh Steelers safety Juan Thornhill at minicamp on June 10, 2025. — Ed Thompson \/ Steelers…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":267392,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2055],"tags":[344,7,10781,6,520,57,2360,426,5226],"class_list":{"0":"post-267391","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-pittsburgh-steelers","8":"tag-cam-heyward","9":"tag-football","10":"tag-juan-thornhill","11":"tag-nfl","12":"tag-pittsburgh","13":"tag-pittsburgh-steelers","14":"tag-pittsburghsteelers","15":"tag-steelers","16":"tag-t-j-watt"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/114984050295324027","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267391","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=267391"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267391\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/267392"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=267391"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=267391"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=267391"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}