Carter's Classroom: Maualuga could be answer to inside linebacker depth

The Steelers made no attempt to fill the inside linebacker spot left vacant from the departure of Lawrence Timmons during the NFL draft, which means the only remaining players with starting experience on the team are Ryan Shazier and Vince Williams.

Behind them are Tyler Matakevich, L.J. Fort and Steven Johnson. While two more players are on the roster at the moment, Keith Kelsey and Matt Galambos, both are presumed to be practice squad players at best.

Matakevich saw playing time in his rookie season, but will have to make significant improvements to be a player the Steelers could rely on consistently. Shazier and Williams will face injury issues and need to take plays off on the sideline like every other player, which would force the Steelers into using Matakevich, Fort and possibly Johnson at times.

Instead of doing that, the Steelers could dip into the slimmed down free agent pool that still exists. Remaining are a few inside linebackers, some that are younger with limited experience and others who are older but have been key pieces to NFL defenses.

This study covers a player the Steelers would be very familiar with, former linebacker for the Cincinnati Bengals, Rey Maualuga. 



Maualuga is a 30-year-old veteran with eight years of NFL experience. He has started for the Bengals every year in his career, but last season he fell back on their depth chart for the first time. The Bengals let him go into free agency as his decline in speed became too much of a liability in the pass-happy NFL.

His specialty for the Bengals was his ability to defend against the run. For years he was a key person in their defense because he was able to plug gaps against the run consistently and displayed an expertise in their scheme of flowing around the line of scrimmage.

RUN DEFENSE

One thing that I always admired about Maualuga was how he would rise to the challenge of the responsibilities the Bengals would place him on to cover gaps against the run.

Inside linebackers have the widest variety of responsibilities on defense because they have to cover so much ground. Either they are playing zone coverage, different man coverage assignments, as well as more gaps to cover.

When defending against the run, each defender has responsibilities to cover different gaps in the offensive line and work to penetrate or hold their ground to ensure the running back cannot find space to take over. While some players will be given more flexibility in their assignments, inside linebackers usually have the widest variety of assignments.

Whether an inside linebacker runs to the right or left can alter the gap assignment of an inside linebacker more so than any other position in a defensive front. Thus also making their ability to read what the offense is doing a key trait to success, especially when they have to adjust to how their own defensive linemen react to the play and make post-snap adjustments along with their pre-snap reads.

This is where Maualuga is of most value to a defense. He can not only play the gap he's assigned to, but react accordingly to what an offense is trying to accomplish and flow between gaps left open by his defensive front.

Watch how on this play, Maualuga initially approaches the A-gap between the center and guard, but waits patiently so that he can adjust and find the running back that bounced it outside of the tackle:



Maualuga keeps his head up and does not make rushed decisions that over-commit him in a defense and take him out of the play. This is where his veteran leadership comes into play.

Maualuga knows how to play his gap but be wary of opponents making their own adjustments in the hole so that he can adjust with them. He approaches aggressively but cautiously so that he doesn't have to allow himself to be completely engaged with offensive linemen and make a play on the ball:



That veteran experience also plays into knowing when to sell out and get after a play aggressively. Watch how on the play below, Maualuga jumps to his responsibility to protect the back edge, but accelerates quickly to cut down the cutback space for the running back and makes a tackle at the line of scrimmage:



While the Bengals have come to rely more on the athleticism of Vontaze Burfict, Maualuga kept himself in the fold for so long because he almost always made sure he was in position and reading his keys. While being fast is vital in today's game, there's always going to be a job for a player that understand all the details of his assignments and translate that understanding to success on the field.

LIABILITIES IN COVERAGE

Where Maualuga is a liability is whenever he is forced to play coverage. It exposes his less than quick feet and inability to stick with running backs and tight ends as they play over the middle.

Watch how much respect he has to give Jason Witten on this pass that makes for an extremely easy window for Dak Prescott to fit the ball through:



The Bengals ultimately worked their defensive roster so that they would not have to rely on Maualuga on passing downs and he started to come off the field on later downs. This made for a problem because teams could gameplan to have adjustments ready for the line of scrimmage in packages that would put Maualuga on the field, but then call play action passes or design hot routes that would force him to drop back in coverage and try to cover players that outmatch him.

WORTH THE RISK?

At this point, the Steelers' biggest concern would be to make sure their young defense has experience infused into it and protect themselves from being forced to rely on players that might not be ready for a full starting position, like Matakevich. Matakevich is still a project and flashes potential, but in the instances he came on the field in 2016, he was more of a liability than an asset.

Maualuga would provide a player that can learn the system and be used to plug holes in the ground game should Shazier and/or Williams need to come off the field. He won't be as effective as Timmons, but bringing a veteran of his caliber could be the answer that helps solidify this group until the Steelers make another significant draft investment into the position.

Taking the salary cap into consideration, Maualuga was roughly a $4 million cap hit to the Bengals in 2016 and would have been a little over a $3.6 million cap hit had they not chose to cut him.

The Steelers have around $16.3 million in cap space with some major re-sign needs being right around the corner. Le'Veon Bell still needs to be signed to a long term deal, while Alejando Villanueva still needs a contract for 2017 and the team will need to sign both Shazier and Stephon Tuitt to multi-year deals after the 2017 season.

Maualuga might be a solid fit because he most likely would not command a huge cap number and could be given a two year deal like DeAngelo Williams, so that the Steelers would not have him taking up cap space for too long. Coming to a deal might be difficult though, as Maualuga knows that being 30 in the NFL is around the time that you get your last significant contract that can pull in considerable money.

So it's very possible that Maualuga could wait around to see what teams are desperate enough to shell out a deal that would be closer to his contract that he had with the Bengals. If that's the case, the Steelers probably wouldn't want to be the team that takes that step. They have much more serious priorities and will probably address inside linebacker in the early rounds of the draft in the next two seasons.

Ultimately, Maualuga could be a nice and relatively cheap security investment for the time being at inside linebacker. Only one other inside linebacker is left in the free agency pool that can boast as much experience as Maualuga, and that's D'Qwell Jackson, who we will cover later this week.

But Maualuga is probably the last real candidate for inside linebacker that could be a plug and play veteran that the Steelers could sign, as other players like Jackson, Rolando McClain are coming off of league suspensions; Jackson from a 4-game suspension due to violating the NFL PED policy and McClain from violating multiple drug policies with a long road back to the NFL.