The Pittsburgh Steelers invested heavily in their defensive line in the 2025 NFL Draft, restocking the shelves that were starting to look bare. That investment is already paying off in a big way, according to one NFL insider.
“The defensive line is a preposterously deep unit,” ESPN’s Ben Solak wrote from his training camp stop in Pittsburgh. “Cameron Heyward was off for the day on veteran rest, which left the defensive tackle rotation with Keeanu Benton (about to get paid mightily), 2025 first-rounder Derrick Harmon, 2025 [fifth]-rounder Yahya Black (one of the largest people in the league) and veteran Sebastian Joseph-Day. Even without Heyward, the DT room caused serious problems during running game install — Black most notably.”
Outside of Heyward, defensive tackle has been a weakness on the roster since Stephon Tuitt retired. And the Steelers haven’t had a true old-school space-eater in the middle like Black since Casey Hampton, or maybe Steve McLendon to a lesser extent.
Solak specifically highlighted how disruptive Black was for the offense during run-game install, which is a great sign for a team that has been exposed up the middle too many times in recent years. Black was already one of the bigger players on the roster, and he appears to have added at least 20 pounds to embrace his new nose tackle role.
The unit looked dominant even without its best player in Heyward. The depth is a great sign for the 37-year-old DT, in hopes of keeping him healthy and effective through the end of the season.
For as much buzz as there was about the defensive tackles, the pass rushers stood out even more.
“Perhaps more exciting is the edge room,” Solak wrote. “[Patrick] Graham has been experimenting with [Nick] Herbig as a stand-up linebacker mugged in the A-gap on blitz downs. It’s a new job, and a much different one than sprinting off the corner. But that alignment will be less about head-on rushes against elite centers and more about loops and twists.”
With $66.5 million in salary cap space tied up in T.J. Watt, Alex Highsmith, and Nick Herbig, Solak noted the tension of figuring out how to get all three on the field at once. Patrick Graham’s hybrid fronts where they move players around interchangeably will help, but that includes a player like Herbig playing out of position at times.
That combined cap allocation will go up dramatically next year when Herbig’s cap figure starts to balloon from his new $100 million contract. Solak noted this is very likely the last year of that group being intact, but the Steelers appear ready to take full advantage of the depth.
“With such a deep room along the outside and the interior, the Steelers’ pass rush should build in strength as games progress into the fourth quarter — and as the season progresses into the winter,” he wrote.
Marrying depth with star power is when defenses usually stand the test of time and shine through the duration of the season. Pittsburgh is poised for exactly that, even if it’s the last year before the youth movement fully takes over.