Tim Benz: Steelers defense wants to be 'historic.' Here's some recent history they better fix to make it happen

During training camp, new Pittsburgh Steeler Juan Thornhill said the team’s 2025 defense could be “one of the best of all time.”

When that quote was presented to head coach Mike Tomlin during a radio interview Monday morning, he was asked if he wanted to “cushion it” at all.

What followed wasn’t much of a cushion for what Thornhill said. It was actually was more of an amplification.

“We feel really good about the prospects of this group. We do. We’ve got to write that story,” Tomlin said on WDVE. “We’ve got enough talent, we’ve got enough schematics to do big, big things. When I say big things, I’m talking about historic things.”

Last year’s defense did write history. It allowed the most rushing yards in a playoff game in team history when the Baltimore Ravens posted 299 during the first round of last year’s postseason.

Four weeks earlier, the Ravens put up 220 yards on the ground in a regular-season defeat. Not long before that, the Steelers’ defense allowed the Eagles to run 47 plays in the second half over just three possessions.

That’s the kind of history you try to forget, instead of the kind of history you choose to remember.

You know, like this franchise’s defenses in the 1970s, the mid-’90s and the early 2000s.

I’m sure Tomlin would quickly refute the references to 2024’s collapse by saying “Last year was last year” and that “This year’s team is different.”

Obviously, that’s true. But 2025 is a lot closer to 2024 than it is to any of those great Steelers defenses of days gone by — both in terms of chronology and in terms of roster construction.

For the sake of comparison, just examine the 2008 and 2010 Super Bowl teams that Tomlin coached. Aside from perhaps cornerback, I’m not sure where this defense matches those “historic” units. Even at outside linebacker with T.J. Watt and Alex Highsmith, I’ll take those two specific years of James Harrison and LaMarr Woodley as a tandem.

But let’s forget doing historical name checks of depth charts and stats between two Super Bowl teams and one team that hasn’t played a down yet. When it comes to results versus hype, results win every time.

Instead, let’s focus on the one big element that will truly make this defense historic, where so many other recent defenses under Tomlin have come up short.

The answer to that is sustainability.

It’s lasting the course of the season. It’s withstanding injury and attrition. It’s adjusting those “schematics” throughout the whole season, game-to-game, in order to avoid becoming stale and predictable, as was the case last season when the team went from 10-3 to losing five in a row to close out the season.

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The general formula for the Steelers during this current drought of eight years without a playoff win is that the team usually gets off to a bumpy first month of the season, things coalesce in October and November, then the roof caves in after Thanksgiving.

Often, that’s because the offense needs time to get connected. The defense starts fresh, fast, active, healthy and flies around, makes plays and keeps things afloat until the offense catches up.

Then, after a few months of attrition, the defense gets tired, injured, worn down, and the season ends in the first round of the playoffs or earlier.

2017: After a 3-2 start (that featured just 36 points allowed in the three wins), the Steelers finished the regular season 13-3. However, opposing teams averaged nearly 24 points per game from Week 12 through the end of the year after Ryan Shazier’s injury. In the five previous weeks, the defense never allowed more than 17 points.

Then a Blake Bortles-led Jacksonville Jaguars club put up 38 offensive points en route to a 45-42 playoff win at Heinz Field.

2018: The Steelers started 1-2-1. They became 7-2-1. Then they ended up 9-6-1 and missed the playoffs. During the six-game win streak from Oct. 7 to Nov. 18, the defense yielded just 18 points per game.

In the four losses after Thanksgiving, opposing teams scored 28 per contest, and the club missed the playoffs.

2019: A 1-4 start after Ben Roethlisberger’s injury became an 8-5 record, thanks in part to the Steelers allowing just 16 points per game over an eight-game stretch. The last three weeks featured 146 yards rushing per game between the Bills, Jets and Ravens to close out the season, and the Steelers missed the playoffs at 8-8.

2020: An 11-0 start melted into a 12-4 finish. A dissolving offense was the biggest reason for that. But the defense gave up an average of 24.8 points per game over the last five weeks. Only one team over the first 11 weeks exceeded that total.

Then they lost 48-37 at home to Cleveland in the playoffs.

2021: A 1-3 start became a 5-3-1 record by Nov. 14. From that point on, the Steelers lost four games when the team on the other sideline put up 41, 41, 36 and 36 points. Then they lost in the playoffs 42-21 to the Chiefs.

2022: This was the exception to the rule as the 2-6 Steelers finished 6-2 to reach .500. But, keep in mind, T.J. Watt missed weeks 2-8 with an injury. Minkah Fitzpatrick missed most of two games before the midway bye as well.

2023: After Thanksgiving, the 7-4 Steelers lost three in a row to open December, yielding 24, 21 and 30 points to three non-playoff teams from Arizona, New England and Indianapolis.

2024: I think we just covered that enough, don’t you?

KING TIME! 44-YARD TD ????#PITvsBAL on Prime Video
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— NFL (@NFL) January 12, 2025

At the outset of training camp, Watt acknowledged that overcoming late-season lulls on defense is top of mind.

“Staying healthy is a huge thing. I think it’s rotating more. I think it’s staying fresh. I think it’s the way we approach practice. The way we approach everything,” Watt said when the team reported to Saint Vincent College. “As the stretch goes on, you have to find ways to stay fresh and to modify, if you need to. Those are all conversations that we’re going to have this time of year to make sure that we’re able to make that push when we need to.”

Underscoring Watt’s point, some of the players believe improved depth will be a reason 2025 will be different.

“We have days where some of the (starters) didn’t practice, and other guys stepped up and made a lot of plays,” Thornhill said. “Even if you are a two or a three (on the depth chart), and can step in and not drop off any, that’s when you have the ability to be a really good defense.”

Third-year defensive lineman Keeanu Benton insists that the development of young players such as himself, Payton Wilson and Joey Porter Jr. will be the biggest variable.

“You come out here and you work out with these guys and you get to know them more and more. You realize how much potential we’ve got,” Benton said. “But at the end of the day, it’s all potential until we make it real.”

All those statements are sound, and hopefully the Steelers wed themselves to those talking points.

Because bravado about writing history is one thing. Learning from it is more important.

Otherwise, the Steelers are doomed to repeat it.

Listen: Tim Benz and Chris Adamski wrap up 2025 Steelers training camp at Saint Vincent College