The Pittsburgh Steelers defense returns many starters this season, as the organization has adopted the “run it back” mentality with most of the players under new defensive coordinator Patrick Graham. One of the new players is cornerback Jamel Dean, who was labeled the team’s best offseason move. While the players seem to be pleased with what they have seen from Graham so far, there are already high expectations for the group and the first-year coach.
Players report to Latrobe for training camp in 30 days, and ESPN’s Steelers insider Brooke Pryor made it clear that the defense must be successful for the organization to have any chance of winning the division.
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“The defense gets consistent stops from the start,” Pryor wrote for ESPN on Monday. “The NFL’s highest-paid defense struggled to get stops in the first half of the season, allowing opponents to score an average of 24.4 points per game, while also allowing a league-worst 278.3 passing yards per game. Those numbers improved a bit by the end of the season as the Steelers finished 17th in scoring defense (23.2 points per game) and 29th in passing yards per game (244.9).”
Pittsburgh knows that being able to get stops more consistently stems from a stronger presence at the line of scrimmage and better secondary coverage. The Steelers addressed the latter issue throughout the offseason, as they drafted B-grade cornerback Daylen Everette in the third round and signed safety Jaquan Brisker.
As for the stronger presence at the line of scrimmage, it isn’t exactly known yet if the Steelers will have a preferred front or if they will rotate between a variety of fronts. Graham has kept that part of his defensive scheme out of the public eye. However, he isn’t afraid to get creative with his blitzes and pressures.
What I think Steelers fans are going to like about Patrick Graham is how adaptable he has been schematically throughout his play-calling career. He got that trait from Belichick.
He's run everything from a Flores-style heavy Cover 0 scheme, to heavy press man, to off-zone and he… pic.twitter.com/OCPO53hs3C
— Jack Sperry (@jack_sperry) January 28, 2026
Steelers Need to Take Advantage of an Experienced Group of Players
To be quite frank, there’s no reason the Steelers shouldn’t be able to improve in this aspect with the players they have on the defensive side of the ball. Even with Joey Porter Jr. and his contract situation, Pittsburgh has too much talent to give up over 24 points per game and just under 280 passing yards per game. Even as he has gotten older, Cam Heyward continues to play at a high level, and he now has Derrick Harmon to complement him on the Steelers’ defense.
Dean and Brisker are going to provide a major boost of experience to the secondary, and the middle linebacker group, led by Patrick Queen, has the potential to take significant strides forward this season.
Steelers Defense Can’t Do All of the Heavy Lifting
To say that all of the pressure for this season is exclusively on the Steelers defense is a bit harsh. While the group must certainly be better than it was a year ago, especially given how much it gets paid, the offense has to do better than it did last year. Future Hall of Fame quarterback Aaron Rodgers has a talented group of receivers to throw to in his final season, unlike last year when he heavily relied on D.K. Metcalf (and the whole league knew it).
The run game should also be much better for Pittsburgh this season with Rico Dowdle being a run-first player for the Steelers offense, but he can catch passes out of the backfield as well. Last season, the Steelers often tipped their cap based on which running back was on the field.
Pittsburgh’s offense has some responsibility to improve results this season, but most of it still falls on the Steelers defense to go out and get it done.
Main Photo Courtesy of Barry Reeger – Imagn Images
