Steelers 4 Downs: A 7th starting ILB likely to join 7 safeties who have started so far in ‘23
1. Many faces of D
Through a spate of injuries beginning to number into the absurd (and one suspension), the Pittsburgh Steelers have blown through players in the middle of their defense this season. Through 15 games headed into Sunday at the Seattle Seahawks, the Steelers have started seven different players at safety. And if Myles Jack, as expected, makes his first start of the season Sunday, that would also make for seven Steelers starting inside linebackers, too.
Only one combination of players starting at safety and inside linebacker for the Steelers has done so for more than one game — five times the first defensive snap has featured Cole Holcomb and Elandon Roberts at ILB, and Minkah Fitzpatrick and Keanu Neal at safety. But 11 other combinations of players at safety and inside linebacker have started this season (twice with a three-safety look) — none more than once each.
With Roberts (pectoral injury) out Sunday, the number of combinations to start at ILB and safety will grow to 13. It also will be the seventh duo of starting inside linebackers. The number of pairs who have started at safety is likely to remain at seven.
Overall on defense, the Steelers have had 14 different 11-man starting lineups in 15 games. That’s tied for the third-most in the NFL.
In regards to any snap at any point of a game in 2023, the Steelers have used 464 combinations of defensive personnel. Only three teams have used more.
2. Average or better
It’s become cliché — and divisive — to point out Mike Tomlin’s streak of non-losing seasons. But forget Tomlin for a minute. The Steelers at large with a win in either of their final two games of the regular season can clinch a non-losing season for a 20th year in a row. That would surpass the Bill Belichick/Tom Brady New England Patriots (2001-19) for the second-longest in NFL history behind only the Tom Landry Dallas Cowboys of 1965-85 (21 seasons).
A win at either Seattle or next week in Baltimore would make for 17 straight non-losing seasons for Tomlin. Only Landry and Belichick have had longer runs. As it stands now, Tomlin is tied with Chicago Bears legend George Halas at 16 consecutive non-losing seasons.
3. Auld acquaintance be forgot…
The Steelers are playing on New Year’s Eve for only the fifth time in their history, the third time during the regular season. The NFL regular-season schedule did not extend past Christmas until the past quarter century or so, and the only occasions the Steelers played on Dec. 31 were in 2006 and 2017. They won both – a 23-17 overtime win in Cincinnati in 2006 (Bill Cowher’s final game as coach) and a 28-24 victory in 2017 that capped a winless Cleveland Browns season.
The Steelers’ New Year’s Eve playoff games came in 1972 in 1989. The former was an AFC championship game loss to the undefeated Miami Dolphins, the latter an overtime upset wild-card win at the Houston Oilers.
4. Not must-see TV
It’s trivial in the grand scheme, and highly imperfect in regards to drawing conclusions. But it perhaps can be telling where the Steelers stand in stature among their NFL peers by examining how often they have drawn the No. 1 announcing team on the national network that most often broadcasts their games.
This season, with the regular-season finale not yet determined, that number would be zero.
CBS’s Jim Nantz, Tony Romo and Tracy Wolfson have not been assigned for any Steelers games this season. How rare is that for the Steelers, a franchise considered among the NFL’s most-recognized and followed? Should CBS not assign Nantz/Romo/Wolfson to the Week 18 against the Ravens, it would mark only the second time during Tomlin’s tenure that CBS’s top announcing team did not handle at least one Steelers game. During 2019 — the season Ben Roethlisberger suffered a season-ending injury in Week 2 and the Steelers finished 8-8 — Nantz & Co. did no Steelers games.
Since 2007, the Steelers have been what CBS tacitly recognized as its most marketable game as many as six times (2012) during a season — seven (2008) if you count the playoffs.
Counting Sunday’s game in Seattle that will be on Fox, CBS has broadcast seven of the Steelers’ 16 games so far this season. Four have been in primetime and two others were in an exclusive national Saturday window.
CBS traditionally broadcasts AFC games but in recent years the lines have blurred, and the addition of more primetime games also limits the volume of CBS broadcasts.
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Chris Adamski is a TribLive reporter who has covered primarily the Pittsburgh Steelers since 2014 following two seasons on the Penn State football beat. A Western Pennsylvania native, he joined the Trib in 2012 after spending a decade covering Pittsburgh sports for other outlets. He can be reached at cadamski@triblive.com.
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