{"id":314241,"date":"2025-08-24T17:11:10","date_gmt":"2025-08-24T17:11:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/314241\/"},"modified":"2025-08-24T17:11:10","modified_gmt":"2025-08-24T17:11:10","slug":"in-defense-of-jack-sawyer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/314241\/","title":{"rendered":"In Defense Of Jack Sawyer"},"content":{"rendered":"

There\u2019s been a groundswell of optimism over the Pittsburgh Steelers\u2019 rookie class. Even if marred by injury,<\/a> DL Derrick Harmon looked the part this summer. Kaleb Johnson didn\u2019t light the world on fire but got better each time inside a stadium. Yahya Black might be a Day Three steal. Will Howard had his first camp interrupted by a broken finger but looked composed before exiting. Fourth-round OLB Jack Sawyer earned summer buzz that\u2019s faded over the course of three preseason games. A twinge of disappointment that he didn\u2019t post gaudy numbers or impact plays. Both of those fair assessments. The conclusion is not. Sawyer had a fine first outing. Just look a little deeper.<\/p>\n

The numbers. Sawyer finished exhibition action with eight tackles and zero sacks. Ho-hum, nothing that gets you giddy. However, per our charting, he had seven pressures on just 57 rushes, one every 8.1 rushes. That\u2019s a great number. For comparison\u2019s sake, that\u2019s nearly-identical to what Nick Herbig registered during the 2024 regular season (8.2). Of course, it\u2019s August versus September-January. Two different levels of competition, and Sawyer will have to convert those pressures into sacks. But there\u2019s underlying positive data here.<\/p>\n

Most importantly, Sawyer played a high volume of snaps:<\/a> 100 on defense, 41 on special teams. He was just one of four Steelers to reach triple-digit defensive snaps and fell just a few shy of the lead, CB James Pierre\u2019s 107. His special teams volume tied for third-most on the team, matching CB D\u2019Shawn Jamison and only surpassed by SSebastian Castro\u2019s 50 and ILB Carson Bruener\u2019s 64.<\/p>\n

Not every rookie can handle that, and Sawyer himself surely had to push through. At Ohio State, he wasn\u2019t running down kicks and punts. This summer, there wasn\u2019t time to catch your breath. Run 40-yards downfield on a punt, keep your helmet on, and go play outside linebacker. That challenges conditioning. A player coming fresh off the bench is going to look better than one grinding things out for Teryl Austin and Danny Smith. The fact he received all those snaps speaks to a baseline level of trust coaches had in him to handle it.<\/p>\n

This summer was about surviving. Digesting the playbook on defense and special teams, do your job, and compete hard every snap. Sawyer showed it. There were promising reps. He repeatedly won as a pass rusher and run stopper in the finale against Carolina, showing good hand use to shed blocks. Here\u2019s a couple reps, No. 33 at left outside linebacker in all three.<\/p>\n

Sawyer\u2019s effective on stunts, drawing on his days at Ohio State that utilized it more than other defenses. It fits well in Pittsburgh\u2019s scheme.<\/p>\n

When drafted, my hope and expectation was for Sawyer to become a quality No. 3 rotational rusher who plays the run hard. The upside wasn\u2019t there to become a high-end starter or even a Herbig-type. A lack of top athleticism limits the ceiling.<\/p>\n

But Sawyer showed this summer he\u2019s a smart and no-nonsense rusher and strong against the run. If that\u2019s all he becomes, it\u2019s a win as a fourth round pick. Keep in mind he\u2019s only a rookie and the game will slow down for him even as the competition becomes greater. Sawyer didn\u2019t need to leap off the page this year. He\u2019s on solid footing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There\u2019s been a groundswell of optimism over the Pittsburgh Steelers\u2019 rookie class. Even if marred by injury, DL…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":264031,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2055],"tags":[7,295,6,520,57,2360,426,691],"class_list":{"0":"post-314241","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-pittsburgh-steelers","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-jack-sawyer","10":"tag-nfl","11":"tag-pittsburgh","12":"tag-pittsburgh-steelers","13":"tag-pittsburghsteelers","14":"tag-steelers","15":"tag-trending"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115084858855460149","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/314241","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=314241"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/314241\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/264031"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=314241"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=314241"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=314241"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}