Omar Khan has been very busy throughout the offseason, making all kinds of changes to the Steelers' roster.
While the defense hasn't undergone the amount of change as the offense, there's still enough to see the Steelers want to play defense a little differently in 2025. But what tangible changes might we actually see?
MORE MAN COVERAGE
With Darius Slay and Jalen Ramsey joining Joey Porter Jr. at the cornerback position, the Steelers are equipped to utilize man coverage much more often than they did in 2024. All three cornerbacks are great man coverage defenders. The Steelers aren't employing this trio to play spot drop Cover 3 more often than anything else like last season.
Contrary to popular belief, Mike Tomlin isn't afraid to use man coverage. In 2022, just three seasons ago, the Steelers allowed a -4.1% completion percentage over expected (CPOE) when in man coverage, ranking seventh in the NFL. In 2024, they allowed a -0.4% CPOE, ranking 26th. As defined by the NFL, CPOE measures the success of a pass relative to the difficulty of the throw.
It's clear Tomlin didn't trust his defense in man coverage in crucial situations last season. That number above is one of the reasons why. Thus, in 2024, the Steelers were in man coverage 31.9% of the time on third down, ranking 25th in the league. In that 2022 season, they were in man coverage 42.4% of the time on third down, ranking 10th.
Having Porter, Slay and Ramsey at Teryl Austin's disposal, we could see a significant uptick in man coverage. We could also see an uptick in more modern coverages, such as Cover 4, which is a zone coverage with man principles. Despite ranking 31st in Cover 4 usage last season, the Steelers ranked fourth in EPA/play when they used it. Now with better cornerbacks, there's more this defense and can throw at opposing offenses.
MORE BLITZING
The Steelers ranked 15th in the NFL last season, blitzing 27% of the time. However, that's a significant decrease from what the team used to do on a consistent basis. In 2020, the Steelers blitzed 40.3% of the time. The league as a whole has seen a decrease in blitzing. That season, the Steelers ranked fourth with that high blitzing percentage. Meanwhile, that number would have been right there with the Vikings in 2024, who led the NFL with a 40.6% blitz rate.
Part of the reason for a decrease in blitzing is the increased usage of zone coverage. As I've already laid out, a good reason for that is due to the personnel at Tomlin and Austin's disposal. With more man coverage, naturally, we should see more blitzing.
This doesn't mean the Steelers will jump back up to becoming one of the league leaders in blitz rate. But, could they be back in the top 10? It's a reasonable expectation.
MORE NICKEL DEFENSE
A natural reaction to having Porter, Slay and Ramsey at cornerback is expecting an uptick in the usage of nickel defense.
Despite the Steelers being in their nickel defense the vast majority of the time, they don't use it as often as they probably should, based on league trends. Yes, it's up from the 35.9% usage in 2023 and 48.4% usage in 2022, as they were in nickel 58.3% of the time last season. However, that number ranked 23rd in how often teams used their nickel packages.
The league continues to shift to more usage of defensive backs, including some of the better defenses in the league. The Chargers, Chiefs, Vikings and Lions were the better scoring defenses that were in nickel less often than the Steelers, and the Chargers and Chiefs were only teams that were in nickel less often among those that ranked higher in total defense.
The Eagles just won the Super Bowl by suffocating Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs, and they pretty much champion the usage of nickel defense. Not only did they rank third at 80.5% in total usage, but their 77.8% usage on first down ranked fourth in the NFL. That high of a usage on first down shows how much they operate out of that defense outside of obvious passing situations. Meanwhile, the Steelers were in nickel just 54.2% of the time on first down.
I don't know if we'll see the Steelers jump all the way up to the way the Eagles use nickel, but again, when the likes of Porter, Slay and Ramsey are available, they will be on the field as often as possible. And while Ramsey could very well log some snaps at safety, he will most likely play cornerback most of the time. Thus, more nickel packages could be on the way.
BIGGER EMPHASIS ON ROTATION
The Steelers already emphasize a heavy use of rotation on defense, but they want to utilize their depth even more this season.
Cam Heyward played 71.25% of the defensive snaps and T.J. Watt played 85.9% of them last season. The Steelers want those percentages to decrease for their two best defensive players, though not by too much. What they really want is for the likes of Heyward and Watt to be as fresh as possible for crucial downs and critical parts of games, such as late in the second and fourth quarters. That's difficult to do if the depth behind them can't consistently get the job done.
"If you want to be good up front, you got to have a good rotation," Karl Dunbar said during the NFL Draft. "When Cam Heyward is playing 55-60 plays a game in the fourth quarter, you don't have what you want. If we can get those plays 30-35 snaps a game, and you got a good rotation going, everybody will be fresh, and then your best players could play their best at the end of the game."
This is why the Steelers drafted Derrick Harmon and Yahya Black for the interior of the defensive line and Jack Sawyer at edge rusher. The depth behind Heyward and Watt is perhaps the strongest it's been this decade. Keeping Heyward and Watt fresh more often could not only preserve their health, but also make them more productive.
MORE MOVEMENT FROM WATT
Watt almost exclusively plays from the left side. Until this past season, there's been little reason to consider changing anything he's done. He won Defensive Player of the Year in 2021, and he probably could have won the award two other times.
However, seeing a drop in production -- his 11.5 sacks were the lowest in a season in which he played at least 11 games since he was a rookie -- could make the Steelers think twice about using Watt is some other ways.
Watt himself understands the need to possibly change things up, too.
"Teams are playing certain ways and chips and stuff like that and getting the ball out quick," Watt said during locker cleanout day in January. "I need to be more open to moving around more and trying to affect games as much as possible. You guys know I want to affect the games more than anybody, but I don't want to selfishly take another guy's spot, go to a different spot where I feel like I could have a better rush.
"I definitely feel like schematically it's been a tough year for how the offensive scheme things to try to get me out of the game. It's going be a big break down for me to try to find ways to make plays. I'm not making excuses for myself at all. I want to make plays. I need to find ways to continue to win off of chips and slides and things of that nature. And I'm going to work tirelessly this offseason to get that sorted out."
With Watt skipping all of OTAs and minicamp during his contract negotiation, we have yet to see how this might look. If the contract isn't hammered out by the time training camp begins in two weeks, we might not see it there, either. However, if the Steelers are truly about to make Watt the highest-paid non-quarterback in league history when he'll turn 31 in October, they are going to pull out all the stops to make that investment worth every penny.
THE ASYLUM
Five changes we could see on defense
Omar Khan has been very busy throughout the offseason, making all kinds of changes to the Steelers' roster.
While the defense hasn't undergone the amount of change as the offense, there's still enough to see the Steelers want to play defense a little differently in 2025. But what tangible changes might we actually see?
MORE MAN COVERAGE
With Darius Slay and Jalen Ramsey joining Joey Porter Jr. at the cornerback position, the Steelers are equipped to utilize man coverage much more often than they did in 2024. All three cornerbacks are great man coverage defenders. The Steelers aren't employing this trio to play spot drop Cover 3 more often than anything else like last season.
Contrary to popular belief, Mike Tomlin isn't afraid to use man coverage. In 2022, just three seasons ago, the Steelers allowed a -4.1% completion percentage over expected (CPOE) when in man coverage, ranking seventh in the NFL. In 2024, they allowed a -0.4% CPOE, ranking 26th. As defined by the NFL, CPOE measures the success of a pass relative to the difficulty of the throw.
It's clear Tomlin didn't trust his defense in man coverage in crucial situations last season. That number above is one of the reasons why. Thus, in 2024, the Steelers were in man coverage 31.9% of the time on third down, ranking 25th in the league. In that 2022 season, they were in man coverage 42.4% of the time on third down, ranking 10th.
Having Porter, Slay and Ramsey at Teryl Austin's disposal, we could see a significant uptick in man coverage. We could also see an uptick in more modern coverages, such as Cover 4, which is a zone coverage with man principles. Despite ranking 31st in Cover 4 usage last season, the Steelers ranked fourth in EPA/play when they used it. Now with better cornerbacks, there's more this defense and can throw at opposing offenses.
MORE BLITZING
The Steelers ranked 15th in the NFL last season, blitzing 27% of the time. However, that's a significant decrease from what the team used to do on a consistent basis. In 2020, the Steelers blitzed 40.3% of the time. The league as a whole has seen a decrease in blitzing. That season, the Steelers ranked fourth with that high blitzing percentage. Meanwhile, that number would have been right there with the Vikings in 2024, who led the NFL with a 40.6% blitz rate.
Part of the reason for a decrease in blitzing is the increased usage of zone coverage. As I've already laid out, a good reason for that is due to the personnel at Tomlin and Austin's disposal. With more man coverage, naturally, we should see more blitzing.
This doesn't mean the Steelers will jump back up to becoming one of the league leaders in blitz rate. But, could they be back in the top 10? It's a reasonable expectation.
MORE NICKEL DEFENSE
A natural reaction to having Porter, Slay and Ramsey at cornerback is expecting an uptick in the usage of nickel defense.
Despite the Steelers being in their nickel defense the vast majority of the time, they don't use it as often as they probably should, based on league trends. Yes, it's up from the 35.9% usage in 2023 and 48.4% usage in 2022, as they were in nickel 58.3% of the time last season. However, that number ranked 23rd in how often teams used their nickel packages.
The league continues to shift to more usage of defensive backs, including some of the better defenses in the league. The Chargers, Chiefs, Vikings and Lions were the better scoring defenses that were in nickel less often than the Steelers, and the Chargers and Chiefs were only teams that were in nickel less often among those that ranked higher in total defense.
The Eagles just won the Super Bowl by suffocating Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs, and they pretty much champion the usage of nickel defense. Not only did they rank third at 80.5% in total usage, but their 77.8% usage on first down ranked fourth in the NFL. That high of a usage on first down shows how much they operate out of that defense outside of obvious passing situations. Meanwhile, the Steelers were in nickel just 54.2% of the time on first down.
I don't know if we'll see the Steelers jump all the way up to the way the Eagles use nickel, but again, when the likes of Porter, Slay and Ramsey are available, they will be on the field as often as possible. And while Ramsey could very well log some snaps at safety, he will most likely play cornerback most of the time. Thus, more nickel packages could be on the way.
BIGGER EMPHASIS ON ROTATION
The Steelers already emphasize a heavy use of rotation on defense, but they want to utilize their depth even more this season.
Cam Heyward played 71.25% of the defensive snaps and T.J. Watt played 85.9% of them last season. The Steelers want those percentages to decrease for their two best defensive players, though not by too much. What they really want is for the likes of Heyward and Watt to be as fresh as possible for crucial downs and critical parts of games, such as late in the second and fourth quarters. That's difficult to do if the depth behind them can't consistently get the job done.
"If you want to be good up front, you got to have a good rotation," Karl Dunbar said during the NFL Draft. "When Cam Heyward is playing 55-60 plays a game in the fourth quarter, you don't have what you want. If we can get those plays 30-35 snaps a game, and you got a good rotation going, everybody will be fresh, and then your best players could play their best at the end of the game."
This is why the Steelers drafted Derrick Harmon and Yahya Black for the interior of the defensive line and Jack Sawyer at edge rusher. The depth behind Heyward and Watt is perhaps the strongest it's been this decade. Keeping Heyward and Watt fresh more often could not only preserve their health, but also make them more productive.
MORE MOVEMENT FROM WATT
Watt almost exclusively plays from the left side. Until this past season, there's been little reason to consider changing anything he's done. He won Defensive Player of the Year in 2021, and he probably could have won the award two other times.
However, seeing a drop in production -- his 11.5 sacks were the lowest in a season in which he played at least 11 games since he was a rookie -- could make the Steelers think twice about using Watt is some other ways.
Watt himself understands the need to possibly change things up, too.
"Teams are playing certain ways and chips and stuff like that and getting the ball out quick," Watt said during locker cleanout day in January. "I need to be more open to moving around more and trying to affect games as much as possible. You guys know I want to affect the games more than anybody, but I don't want to selfishly take another guy's spot, go to a different spot where I feel like I could have a better rush.
"I definitely feel like schematically it's been a tough year for how the offensive scheme things to try to get me out of the game. It's going be a big break down for me to try to find ways to make plays. I'm not making excuses for myself at all. I want to make plays. I need to find ways to continue to win off of chips and slides and things of that nature. And I'm going to work tirelessly this offseason to get that sorted out."
With Watt skipping all of OTAs and minicamp during his contract negotiation, we have yet to see how this might look. If the contract isn't hammered out by the time training camp begins in two weeks, we might not see it there, either. However, if the Steelers are truly about to make Watt the highest-paid non-quarterback in league history when he'll turn 31 in October, they are going to pull out all the stops to make that investment worth every penny.
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