Kovacevic: Greatest pressure on 2016 Steelers? Generating pressure

Aug 28, 2016 • 1:12 am

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There's no shortcut in the NFL to rebuild a sagging secondary.

But you'd better believe there's a way to render any such shortcoming irrelevant.

"Get to the quarterback, man," Jarvis Jones was telling me before the Steelers took to the scorched lawn of the Rooney Sports Complex on this searing Sunday afternoon. "That's it. There are a lot of other things we're responsible for up front, but the big one is always going after the ball. The quarterback's the one with the ball. The less time he's got, the better everyone is."

Yep. Sounds so simple, too.

Give a guy that extra second, and he can scour the field like Peyton Manning, set himself to launch like John Elway and deliver like Joe Montana.

Take that second away, and the guy could be any one of the Browns' past 22 quarterbacks.

And with a 3-4 defense that recently invested first-round draft picks in outside linebackers, Jones and Bud Dupree, it should be all the more academic, as it's exactly the position you'd pick for your highest-pedigree talent.

One problem ...

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You're reading that right. Cam Heyward, a down lineman in that 3-4 scheme, led the Steelers in sacks with eight overall, seven in the regular season. Even though he was often double-teamed. Even though his primary role is clearing space for linebackers to do that sort of thing.

His sack total was tied for 30th in the NFL, less than half that of the league's top three: J.J. Watt of the Texans with 17, Khalil Mack of the Raiders with 15, Ezekiel Ansah of the Lions with 14.5

Next on the Steelers' list up there is James Harrison, the first outside linebacker. He had five sacks, ranking 67th among all NFL players, then another two in the playoffs. He towered above the rest way more than anyone in football should at age 36.

After that is Stephon Tuitt, another down lineman, at 6.5.

Notice anyone missing?

No, not the other veteran on the edge, Arthur Moats, who should represent depth. He had four.

I'm talking about Jones and Dupree, who had three and four, respectively.

Because if those two stay stuck at that same layman's level in 2016, there will be no masking it. Not even if Mike Tomlin drove a DeLorean back in time to summon prime-time versions of Mel Blount and Rod Woodson on the corners, Donnie Shell and Troy Polamalu at safety.

"We know that," Jones was saying, moments after pulling up a stool next to Dupree. "We know we've got to get back there, and we know what kind of difference it'll make. We're ready for it."

Ready for the pressure that comes with it, too?

"Man, this isn't about pressure," Dupree chimed in. "You can't say there's pressure on us because these are just our jobs. This is what we're supposed to do."

That's a fine way of putting it, in part because the oddity in this equation is a doozy: The Steelers' 48 sacks as a team ranked third in the NFL, behind only the two AFC Championship Game participants, the Broncos with 52 and the Patriots with 49. So it would be easy to cite that as evidence that the problem in Pittsburgh isn't all that dire.

I'd robustly disagree.