As the Pittsburgh Steelers sit just weeks away from reporting to Latrobe for training camp, all eyes should be on one player.
That would be 2014 first-round pick Jarvis Jones.
There have been many reasons for the Steelers decline over the course of the past three seasons, but one of the biggest issues has been the disappearance of the Steelers pass rush.
As the Steelers begin to transition to a younger, faster and more athletic defense, to avoid a third straight disappointing campaign, that pass rush must reemerge in a big way.
That’s where Jones needs to come to play.
It is no coincidence that the Steelers stopped being a Super Bowl caliber team around the same time that they stopped producing an elite level pass rush.
In the past three seasons the Steelers have failed to reach 40 sacks in a season and coincidently they haven’t won a playoff game during that span. In the three years prior to that drop off, the Steelers registered at least 47 sacks a season and made two trips to the Super Bowl.
As is the norm in Dick LeBeau’s defense, things begin with a solid pass rush. If they don’t have one in 2014, it is hard to envision them being much better than the 8-8 team that we have seen the past two years.
The bad part is the Steelers really don’t have an elite pass rusher on their roster.
Cam Heyward can get to the quarterback occasionally, as can Lawrence Timmons. You would have to think that Ryan Shazier’s speed should result in a few sacks and honestly you just don’t know what to expect from Jason Worilds as you have to cross your fingers that his late season emergence in 2013 wasn’t a fluke.
That puts even more pressure on Jones to step up in 2014.
The Steelers’ linebacking core has all kinds of potential on paper but outside of Timmons they are really an unproven commodity.
Typically, the Steelers defense features a veteran outside linebacker paired with a young, up and coming pass rusher. It’s hard to call Worilds a veteran even though he has been in the league for four years as he has made only 21 starts in that span.
Coming off a big year you should expect Worilds to get plenty of attention shown to him, which means Jones is going to have to make opposing defenses pay.
Jones was pressed into duty last season and disappointed with only one sack. Yet while the production may not have been there, he did show signs at times that he could be a fixture on the outside.
He is said to have gotten stronger in the offseason, something Jones definitely needed to work on. He also has been quite fond of having Joey Porter around as linebackers’ coach as things have gone well to date in terms of learning new techniques.
At this time last year, Jones appeared to be confused during spring drills, and he said he really didn’t know what to expect. But now that he’s gone through a full year with the team, the game should start to slow down for him.
If it does and Jones takes the next step that many believe he will, the Steelers defense could be in very good shape. However if he doesn’t, it could be more of the same for the black and gold.
Jones needs to play a major role to boost the Steelers from one of their lowest sack-producing seasons in decades. With just 32 sacks last season, the Steelers need to emphasize quarterback pressure more than anything else.
If they do the big plays and turnovers will come as well.
A lot of that could lay on Jones’ shoulders as he has to produce in 2014.
Coming into camp there may not be more pressure on one individual like there may be on Jones.
We will find out in a few short weeks if he is capable of delivering.
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