Overall, 2022 was a down season for the Pittsburgh Steelers defense. But one of a handful of players who stepped up and had a career season was outside linebacker Alex Highsmith. Highsmith took full advantage of all the attention teammate T.J. Watt draws on defense and turned in a team-leading 14.5 sacks.
This prompted the smart folks at Next Gen Stats to name Highsmith one of their disruptors of 2022. He checked in at No. 6. Here’s what they had to say about Highsmith.
Instead of receding into the background when Watt was sidelined due to injury last season, Highsmith put together the best year of his career, more than doubling his previous single-season high for sacks and posting a QB pressure rate that was better than many of the NFL’s household names. That’s more than worthy of a spot on this list.
Once again it is important to note, Highsmith did not step up when Watt went down. Quite the contrary. Highsmith only had 3.5 sacks in the seven games Watt missed and got the other 11 when Watt was playing. Highsmith’s success was more about taking advantage of advantageous mismatches and not him stepping into the lead pass-rusher role. To be fair to Highsmith, the entire defense fell flat.
