PITTSBURGH — The Steelers again will spend huge money on their defense this season. They have the highest-paid edge rusher in the NFL. They have the second-highest-paid safety. They are spending big on Cam Heyward up front and just put nearly $30 million into Larry Ogunjobi.
Their latest move was to lavish linebacker Alex Highsmith with a $70.743 million contract ($27.7 million guaranteed) Wednesday, and that prompts a question:
Will this finally be the year the Steelers play great defense again?
It's been a minute. One could make a solid case that the last truly great Steelers defense was the 2010 edition, which led the league in points against and sacks, specialized in splash plays and took the team to the Super Bowl. Mike Tomlin has called it the best defense he ever coached, including the '08 unit that won it all.
There have been some good groups since 2010. The next year's team also finished first in points allowed but couldn't buy a turnover ... and ... well ... Tebow.
The 2020 defense finished third overall in points allowed and led the league in sacks but struggled down the stretch ... and ... well ... Baker Mayfield.
The 2017 defense was outstanding for parts of the season but ultimately undone by the horrible injury to Ryan Shazier.
Even the past two versions had their moments. Both looked awesome in the season openers, the 2021 group smashing Josh Allen and last year's group breaking Joe Burrow in half.
The fun didn't last. The '21 defense crumbled, devolving into the worst of Tomlin's tenure. Last year's unit fared better (10th in points allowed) but hardly lived up to the coach's preseason hype. Tomlin promised a "great" defense. He expected it to be "dominant." It wasn't.
Yes, T.J. Watt missed seven games, but great defenses overcome such adversity. The 1995 Steelers lost Rod Woodson — maybe the best defensive player in the league — for nearly the whole season but still made the Super Bowl. Even a Watt-less defense needs to protect a 10-point fourth-quarter lead at home against Zach Wilson. And how about the day the Steelers — with Watt — let the Ravens run the ball at will with a third-string quarterback?
Those two home losses — featuring massive defensive failures late in the game — wrecked the season.
In other games, notably the blowout losses to the Bills and Eagles, the defense never even got started. It finished the season well, but let's be serious here: The opposing quarterbacks for the wins over that 7-2 finish were Andy Dalton, Matt Ryan, Marcus Mariota, Sam Darnold, Tyler Huntley, Anthony Brown, bad Derek Carr and shaky Deshaun Watson. A loss to any of them would have been horrifying.
So now what? The Steelers have a star at every level of their defense. They have two very rich bookend edge rushers. They brought in Patrick Peterson and drafted Joey Porter Jr. to bolster the secondary. They brought in their latest auditions at inside linebacker.
Truly, they've had more than enough time to put the requisite pieces around Heyward, Watt and Minkah Fitzpatrick. And I happen to agree with Heyward, to a point, on his definition of greatness.
"To be the best defense in our league, you need a crown on your head that is saying you're the Super Bowl champion," Heyward said recently on the 3 and Out podcast. "To do that, you have to do it every week. We can't take weeks off. We can't have those blunders where a running back had some yards. It's got to be consistently our goal to dominate on defense."
I don't believe you have to win the Super Bowl to be great. The 2010 Steelers defense was an example. But you have to bring it just about every week. No lulls. No Zach-bleepin'-Wilson-goes-length-of-field-twice-in-fourth-quarter weeks.
It can't happen.
All indications are that the Steelers are going to try to win the old-fashioned way this season: run the ball and play consistently dominant, destructive defense.
On the latter front, it would be about time.
