{"id":868591,"date":"2026-04-17T19:07:11","date_gmt":"2026-04-17T19:07:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/868591\/"},"modified":"2026-04-17T19:07:11","modified_gmt":"2026-04-17T19:07:11","slug":"steelers-dc-reveals-most-important-part-of-3-4-defense","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/868591\/","title":{"rendered":"Steelers DC Reveals Most Important Part of 3-4 Defense"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"PittsburghCredit: Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

PITTSBURGH \u2014 Pittsburgh Steelers defensive coordinator Patrick Graham looks forward to carrying the Steelers\u2019 long history of having a 3-4 defense. The 3-4 has been the Steelers\u2019 base defense for over four decades.<\/p>\n

Graham stressed that the big\u2019s up front are the biggest key in a 3-4 defense. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you look at my time in New England, my time with the Giants, and then over the history here with Pittsburgh, you\u2019re going to notice they have big men on the roster. That\u2019s the most important part,\u201d Graham said. \u201cSo when you start to talk about the 3-4, the big guys on the roster, people like Cam [Heyward], people like KB [Keeanu Benton], people like [Yahya] Black, [Derrick] Harmon, these are big human beings. <\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s where you\u2019ll find those guys right there. I think that Pittsburgh\u2019s been really disciplined, and that\u2019s a credit to Omar {Khan}, Mr. Rooney and the organization. They\u2019ve been really disciplined in terms of that profile and that serves them well.\u201d <\/p>\n

Veteran Cam Heyward will play in his 16th season in 2026, and he\u2019s shown no signs of slowing down. Keeanu Benton, Derrick Harmon and Yahya Black are all promising young defensive lineman. The Steelers also got a key depth piece in Sebastian Joseph-Day this offseason. <\/p>\n

Graham also revealed that the team will run a 2-4-5 in sub packages. He thinks the Steelers have a ton of versatility and flexibility.<\/p>\n

At the NFL Owners Meetings last month, Steelers head coach Mike McCarthy said he felt he \u201cwas able to get into a rhythm\u201d working with Dom Capers in Green Bay. The two were together for nine seasons with the Packers and met for an hour and 15 minutes early each morning.<\/p>\n

McCarthy coached with Graham in Green Bay, so he has a lot of familiarity and trust in him. <\/p>\n

\u201cIf you\u2019re gonna call the (offensive) plays, you\u2019ve gotta be in the room,\u201d McCarthy said. \u201cYou\u2019ve gotta be in the decision. I have to be in that quarterback room, so you can\u2019t be in all of those places at once. It\u2019s ridiculous to try. I\u2019ve known Patrick for quite some time. He knows how I feel about the history of this defense. Dom Capers, Bill Cowher put this system in in 1992. Mike Tomlin\u2019s done a great job of carrying it forward.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo we\u2019re looking to build off of what\u2019s in place. We\u2019re not throwing away everything and starting over.\u201d<\/p>\n

McCarthy actually tried adding Capers to his Steelers staff, which would\u2019ve marked a return to the Steel City for the former Pittsburgh defensive coordinator (1992-94), but couldn\u2019t make it fit. Capers ended up joining the Cleveland Browns as a senior defensive assistant.<\/p>\n

Alan Saunders provided reporting from Pittsburgh.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tMentioned In This Article: Patrick Graham<\/a> Pittsburgh Steelers<\/a> Steelers<\/a> Steelers News<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Steelers News Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images PITTSBURGH \u2014 Pittsburgh Steelers defensive coordinator Patrick Graham looks forward to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":868592,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2055],"tags":[7,6,14269,520,57,2360,426,2395],"class_list":{"0":"post-868591","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-pittsburgh-steelers","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-nfl","10":"tag-patrick-graham","11":"tag-pittsburgh","12":"tag-pittsburgh-steelers","13":"tag-pittsburghsteelers","14":"tag-steelers","15":"tag-steelers-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116421621271135414","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/868591","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=868591"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/868591\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/868592"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=868591"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=868591"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=868591"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}