For decades now it has been no secret that the Pittsburgh Steelers like to build their defense through the linebacker position.
Needing a new identity with some popular veterans aging over the past few years, Steelers’ general manager Kevin Colbert once again has been following that blueprint in order to try and restore the Steelers defensive unit among the best in the league.
For that to happen, the Steelers quartet of first round picks need to live up to their draft status.
While the likes of James Harrison, Arthur Moats, Sean Spence, Vince Williams and others will make some sort of impact at different times during the season, the reality is that the Steelers are coming into the season with four first-round picks at linebacker and they need to live up to their draft status.
With there are still plenty of concerns in the secondary and up front, any success that the Steelers defense has in 2015 will likely be based on how well Jarvis Jones, Lawrence Timmons, Ryan Shazier and rookie Bud Dupree perform as a unit.
That especially rings true in terms of getting to the quarterback, an area the Steelers have struggled for the past few years, especially last season when they bottomed out with just 33 sacks as a team.
Add all of that up and that means that first-round picks need to start playing like it.
Timmons is the only certainty of the bunch as there are no worries about him entering his ninth season in the league as Timmons is as solid as it comes in the middle of the Steelers defense.
The other three represent big question marks.
The biggest pressure may be on third-year pro Jarvis Jones, who was the No. 17 overall selection in the 2013 NFL Draft.
Is it too early to call Jones a bust?
Maybe not considering that he has only 39 tackles and three sacks entering his third year in the league. By the time a young player is entering his third season, he should be ready to make a major impact. No one can say that Jones is ready to do so.
To be fair, Jones has been injured at times. But when he has been on the field the production hasn’t been there and that is a major concern.
The same can be said for Shazier, last year’s first-round pick.
The Ohio State product was also injured last season, but when he was on the field didn’t do much to stand out.
While Shazier’s future looks bright, a rookie year with only 24 solo tackles in nine games played likely wasn’t what the Steelers were hoping for. That especially rings true when you look at the rookie campaign that Baltimore’s C.J. Mosley turned in.
Mosley, who the Steelers passed on for Shazier, a move that I hated, was a beast for the Ravens from day one and made the Pro Bowl as a rookie.
Needless to say there is some pressure on Shazier to take a big step forward during his second season.
There is also a ton of pressure on this year’s first-round pick Dupree.
While the Steelers do have some insurance in Harrison, he isn’t going to play 80 snaps a game. The Steelers drafted Dupree to play and that is what the plan will be heading into camp.
Even though he is a rookie, Dupree is going to have to produce like a veteran in terms of getting to the quarterback.
If he does, it might just make Jones a little bit better on the other side as well.
While the Steelers defense looks a lot younger on paper than it did a couple seasons ago, it is still a defense with a ton of question marks at every position.
Yet these four linebackers can answer a lot of those questions by living up to their draft status.
Getting to the quarterback isn’t the only issue the Steelers defense faces as they must also prove they can get back to stopping the run at an elite level.
While they don’t have to take the leaps to becoming All-Pro’s overnight, the Steelers linebacking core must take big steps forward as a unit.
The organization has invested heavily in them.
We will find out this season if they invested wisely.
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