Keith Butler's defense finished with 48 sacks last season, good for third in the NFL. But somewhat unusually, the Steelers put more pressure on the quarterback from the line than the outside linebackers.
James Harrison remains a part of that solution at age 38 behind Arthur Moats, Bud Dupree and Jarvis Jones. Dupree and Jones are the first-round picks who are supposed to be the future, but Jones' first three seasons have shown little promise toward being an elite pass rusher, and Dupree had just four sacks in his rookie year. Defensive ends Cameron Heyward and Stephon Tuitt brought the heat. Heyward led with seven sacks, and Tuitt had 6.5.
Last week's preseason matchup with the Saints yielded one sack, but the defense showed a lot of plays that the pass rush disrupted Drew Brees.
We look at three instances when the pass rush of the first-team defense made an impact against the Saints:
JONES FORCES PENALTY
Jones has shown progress each season but has yet to show the value of a player drafted 15th overall. While he doesn't record a sack on this play, he wins his one-on-one matchup and forces a penalty, which brings back a big play for the Saints.
Jones is the least feared player in the Steelers' front seven, which means when teams plan for the Steelers, they will most likely not try to double-team him and focus instead on Tuitt and Heyward. That gives Jones the prime opportunity to be a player who gets to the quarterback.
Here, he uses a quick move to get to the inside of the the tackle and force the player to either commit a holding penalty or let him get a free shot at Brees. While his technique leaves something to be desired, he gets the job done on this play. Jones crosses the face of a lineman, a cardinal sin in pass protection, and does so without using a form-fitting rip, swim or technical move. While it works here, it probably won't against better offensive tackles in the NFL. He uses his hands on this play to get some separation, which is good, but if he had brought his right arm across it might have been even more difficult for the tackle to slow him down.
UNCOMFORTABLE BREES
You can see that again on this pass play. Jones gets his one-on-one opportunity to rush the quarterback. While he does not draw a penalty or record a sack, he forces Brees from his launch point on a third-down play. When generating pressure, the key is to force a quarterback to have to improvise on a play.
The interior rushers are to collapse the pocket and change the line of scrimmage, and the outside rushers are to close the edges, contain the quarterback and either force him to move into the interior rushers or get the sack themselves. Jones forces Brees up in the pocket and to throw a quick shovel pass short of the first-down marker.
A TUITT LEADER
Many Steelers fans were worried when they saw Heyward fall to injury, but Tuitt continued to put on a dominating performance. He can be the key player in this defense if he continues to improve at the rate that he has in his two previous years in the NFL.
On this play, Tuitt delays just long enough for Anthony Chickillo to stunt inside and become an obstacle for Tuitt to use to work around the edge and get to Luke McCown. Tuitt possesses elite strength, but his explosiveness is equally important in his game. After Chickillo stunts to the inside, Tuitt works around his outside shoulder to move away from the guard, get his hands on McCown and force the intentional grounding penalty.
The team's pass rushing efforts will make or break the defense in 2016. If they can consistently create pressure, the defense will not be as much of a liability and the Steelers could combine their elite offense with an elite defense.
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