Pittsburgh Steelers' Run Defense Still Needs Offseason Improvements

The Pittsburgh Steelers' pass defense has gotten a lot of offseason attention—and for good reason. Cornerback Ike Taylor and safety Troy Polamalu retired, and the team drafted two rookie cornerbacks, so Pittsburgh must figure out where the rest of their pieces will fit for the 2015 season. 

Even the pass rush is part of that concern, especially with linebacker Jarvis Jones coming off a wrist injury that isn't fully healed and rookie Bud Dupree trying to crack the first-team defense. So it's almost that Pittsburgh's run defense has fallen to the wayside.

Perhaps it's because there is the perception the Steelers' performance against the run last year was a good one. After all, playoffs included, the Steelers allowed a sixth-best 97.1 rushing yards per game to their opponents.

But that low rushing total can be attributed to the fact opponents knew they could pass against the Steelers. Pittsburgh ranked 25th in passing yards allowed per game, 253.1 yards, while teams threw the ball against them 33.7 times per game. In contrast, opposing offenses ran the ball just 23.1 times per game on average, the third fewest in the league.

Stat	Value	Rank
Opp. Rush YPG	97.1	6th
Opp. Rush Att./G	23.1	3rd
Opp. Rush YPG	4.2	17th
Opp. Rush 1st D/G	5.5	13th
Opp. Rush TD/G	.6	9th

What matters most is how many yards teams gain per rush and where those teams are earning the most yardage. The Steelers allowed 4.2 yards per rush last year, ranking them a pedestrian 17th in the league. If the Steelers had also been the 17th-ranked defense in opponent rushing attempts per game, that would have been 26.6 attempts. In that case, the Steelers would have allowed 111.7 rushing yards per game, which would have been 16th in the league in 2014.

Even though teams ran just 23 times per game against the Steelers defense last season, they still netted 5.5 rushing first downs per game, ranking the Steelers 13th. The run game, though used sparingly, was able to move the chains for opposing offenses.

Football Outsiders ranks the Steelers' 2014 defensive line 21st against the run. Most conspicuously, the line ranked 30th in opponents' second-level yards—runs that went between five and 10 yards beyond the line of scrimmage—and 19th in open-field yards—runs that went over 10 yards beyond the line of scrimmage. They also ranked low in run stuffing, recording either a tackle for a loss or no gain in the run game 18 percent of the time.

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Unsurprisingly, the Steelers defensive line also ranked 21st against the pass. This is because the same issues that plagued the team in pass rushing were the ones that also caused their struggles to stop the run on a per-rush basis. The lack of aggression must be addressed this offseason to improve not just the Steelers' lot against the pass but also against the run.

It wasn't all doom and gloom for the Steelers run defense last year, however. Inside linebacker Lawrence Timmons was Pro Football Focus' 11th-best interior linebacker, primarily because of his plus-12.3 grade as a run defender, a grade surpassed by just three other inside linebackers.

This year, he's expected to be joined full time by second-year player Ryan Shazier, who began his rookie year as a starter but ultimately missed seven games with knee and hamstring injuries before coming back as part of a three-man rotation with Vince Williams and Sean Spence late in the season. 

Furthermore, the defense as a whole looks to take a newly aggressive turn behind defensive coordinator Keith Butler, who supplanted Dick LeBeau this offseason.

Gene J. Puskar/Associated Press

Steelers defensive end Cameron Heyward recently spoke to the MMQB's Robert Klemko about the changes:

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[There have been] some conceptual changes, some more blitzes he wants to add. I think he wants to generate more turnovers and get more one-on-ones up front where we're maximizing everyone's talents and making sure everyone has a chance to get after the quarterback or get a turnover.

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Heyward also noted that: "We're not going to have players holding blocks for others and staying in these double teams." Klemko added: "That means asking players to be more versatile, and challenging rushers to pierce the line of scrimmage." That aggressive approach will result in more opportunities for run stuffing that will help the Steelers defense's per-rush statistics if executed as planned.

But the Steelers need to be more consistent against the run regardless of the tweaks Butler is making on defense this summer. Safety Mike Mitchell's being healthy will help. In 2014, Mitchell played 327 run snaps but had only three total stops in the run game, two of which came on runs he defended within eight yards of the line of scrimmage. That ranked him 63rd out of 83 safeties against the run, according to Pro Football Focus.

But Mitchell played the entire year with two torn groin muscles he's since had surgically repaired, reported by PennLive.com. A greater range of motion—not to mention a year of experience working with his Steelers teammates—should result in better on-field results against the run for him.

Another help will be to keep defensive lineman Cam Thomas as far from the field as possible. Last season, Thomas played 443 total snaps, with 214 of them coming against the run. He ended the season as the Steelers' worst run defender, with a grade of negative-16.7. It was the worst run grade recorded by any 3-4 defense end on the year. This year, Thomas should take a season-long backseat to second-year player Stephon Tuitt, which should hopefully see the results against the run improve.

The Steelers run defense is not a lost cause. But it is an area of the team that has seemed to have gotten lost in the shuffle this offseason while the secondary undergoes so many drastic changes. But the same mechanisms that kept the Steelers from being productive pass-rushers last year also resulted in a deceptively poor season against the run.

With a few tweaks, both to the scheme and personnel, the Steelers will hopefully be able to turn around their run-game struggles by Week 1.