The Steelers' first free-agent signing of the offseason, linebacker Jon Bostic, joins the club after being with four different teams since the Bears selected him in the second round of the 2013 NFL Draft.
That was when the Steelers selected Vince Williams in the sixth round, but Bostic was selected well above Williams. Bostic's skill set in college was similar to that of what he's shown in his time in the NFL. He's a strong defender against the run with skill in shedding blockers and filling gaps.
We examine Bostic's 2017 tape to show his pedigree:
Bostic is 27 years old and an experienced inside linebacker who knows how to be aggressive but disciplined when attacking downhill against the run. Watch how he approached his assigned B-gap and sits in the hole, chopping his feet and takes on Lamar Miller:
Bostic's career has been one which he's built his reputation on being able to not only approach those holes, but manage himself amid blockers and maintain his assignments. Bostic's 57 solo tackles in 2017 won't stand out on any stat sheet, but what's important with how he contributes to the defense is how he takes on and works through blockers.
Watch how Bostic mitigates the wave of linemen in order to maintain his spot and force the running back wide into the rest of the defense. Bostic not only makes the initial play by filling his gap, but he follows through to finish the play with a tackle for loss:
The kind of work Bostic does to filter through blockers as well as he does takes a combination of strength and the learned skills to leverage that strength with solid hand placement and constantly chopping feet to react as different blockers attack.
Watch how he goes up against the Steelers' own best lead blocking fullback, Roosevelt Nix, and uses his solid footwork to never present a still target for Nix to attack. By doing so, he absorbs his block and contributes to defending the gap against Le'Veon Bell, limiting him to a gain of only a yard:
Bostic's work to protect his gap extends from the center of the offensive line to outside the tackle on his side of the field. While he has nowhere near the range of Ryan Shazier, watch how quickly Bostic gets to his spot and then sits at the edge to maintain it against a pulling Vance McDonald. Bostic uses his inside shoulder to brush past Alejandro Villanueva and keep McDonald off him, while keeping his outside shoulder free to bring down Martavis Bryant for a nine-yard loss:
This is what Bostic brings as a linebacker. He's not a superstar, nor will he be the X-factor type of player Shazier was. But he's a solid run defender who has shown he has the experience to deal with blockers at the point of attack.
That kind of player is what the Steelers desperately needed next to Williams in the late stretch of the season when they lost Shazier to injury. While Sean Spence and company could know which gaps to go to, Bostic has consistently displayed that he can find his assignment and employ a combination of aggressiveness and discipline to win those situations.
Of course, the real question everyone is looking for an answer to is where can the Steelers find an inside linebacker who's dependable in coverage? Bostic isn't a supreme cover man. In his four years of playing in the NFL he has only seven passes defensed, three of which came in 2017.
In comparison, Shazier had nine passes defensed in 2016 and 11 passes defensed in 2017. It's obvious Bostic is still going to be a downgrade. But the reality is there was no linebacker in this free agent group who wouldn't be a downgrade from what Shazier offered to the Steelers.
Bostic does, however, offer the ability to help deep in coverage down the field. One of his passes defensed came when he was backpedaling in a middle zone and broke underneath a deep post pattern to DeAndre Hopkins, swatting the ball away in a routine fashion:
Bostic does have the straight-line speed to get from point A to point B rather at a decent rate considering his size as a 6-foot-1, 245-pound linebacker. When he's going in the right direction, Bostic is a solid defender at different points of the field.
What has to be further examined is whether he can eliminate his problems with being slow at changing direction. If Bostic can limit those moments when he's caught off-guard, and Keith Butler finds a way to maximize the talents of this downhill linebacker in the prime of his career, Bostic could end up being the man in the middle the Steelers need to get through the transition period they're in, just a year after they lost their star at the position.
