LATROBE, Pa. -- One of the biggest questions of the offseason has been how will the Steelers defense improve without Ryan Shazier on the field?
That's been the question posed to coordinator Keith Butler time and again. And he believes he knows the answer.
But it's not necessarily a simple one.
"There are several guys that I’ve talked to, four or five guys, that have got to stand up," Butler told me. "(Stephon Tuitt) is one of them. There are several other guys. In my mind, S.D. (Sean Davis) needs to stand up. Artie (Burns) needs to stand up. Bud (Dupree) needs to stand up. And Vince (Williams) needs to stand up. All of those guys. After the season, that’s the way I felt. But I wouldn’t say that about them if I didn’t think they were capable of it. They are capable of doing it. It’s a matter of them just doing it."
Those five, in particular, need to be better because of those expectations placed on them, either because of where they were drafted, as is the case with the first four, or because of their tenure with the team, as is the case with Williams.
As Butler said, it's a matter of all being capable of big things, something of which they've all shown flashes.
And in the case of Tuitt, it's because the team has already shown a lot of faith in him, giving him a five-year, $60-million contract extension last year. For the first few plays of 2017, it looked to be money very well spent as he single-handedly ended Cleveland's opening possession in the opener. But he also suffered a torn biceps tendon in his arm and was never 100 percent the rest of the year.
Tuitt has come to camp a little heavier than in previous years, currently weighing 330 pounds, according to Butler. He did so because he wanted to see if it improved the power with which he played. But after a few days of practice here at Saint Vincent College, he told me he wants to drop back down closer to the 315 pounds at which he typically plays.
"I wanted to see if I had more power. I’m going to bring it down a little bit," he said "I'm just trying to find that perfect mix. I want to be able to run to the ball."
That could be what it takes for the Steelers defense to be effective without Shazier. While the defense was gashed a couple of times early in the season with Shazier on the field in losses to Jacksonville and Chicago, it also was highly effective for long stretches, as well.
In the six-game stretch after giving up a season-high 223 yards rushing to the Jaguars in Week 5, the Steelers allowed just 62.2 rushing yards per game. But then Shazier was lost Dec. 4 at Cincinnati and the defense was just a shell of itself.
Oh sure, Pittsburgh led the league with a team-record 56 sacks. But there were too many missed tackles and too many big plays allowed.
Finding some consistency is a key. And, as Butler noted, he's seen the five guys about whom he spoke all make big plays at times. But he wants consistent play more than anything, starting with Tuitt, who is heading into his fifth season despite being just 25 years old.
"Tuitt has had some good years for us. He’s weighing about 330," Butler said. "Last time he was 315, he was running quarterbacks down and murdering them because they don’t see him. It was the Cleveland game where he was running away and never saw and he just cleaned his clock. I told him it would be nice to see you doing that again."
In case you forgot, here's what that play looked like:
Getting more plays like that from Tuitt could be critical to the team's success. A healthy Tuitt and Cam Heyward could be as destructive as any defensive line tandem in the NFL. After all, Heyward returned healthy in 2017 and had an All-Pro season, recording a career-high 12 sacks.
Tuitt, playing through the injury that forced him to miss four games, finished the season with just 19 tackles and three sacks in 12 games. Tuitt and Heyward haven't been on the field healthy together since early in the 2016 season. And Tuitt has the capability of being every bit as disruptive as Heyward.
"The goal is to just stay healthy, to be on the field, and both of us on the field, we create chaos and damage," Tuitt said. "So just keep continuing to do that and keep continuing to be better teammates for each other, understand each other and play better with each other, and just move forward and be better."
MATT SUNDAY GALLERY
Steelers training camp, Latrobe, Pa., July 29, 2018. - MATT SUNDAY / DKPS