There are no quick fixes in football, especially not in the middle of a season.
That's what Keith Butler learned last season. The Steelers went 13-3. Their defense ranked fifth overall in the NFL in terms of yards against. It was seventh in points allowed per game and led the NFL with a team-record 56 sacks.
But the underlying facts are these: Without Ryan Shazier on the field, the defense wasn't nearly as stingy, nearly as good as was needed — the proof being a 45-42 playoff loss to Jacksonville. And even before Shazier was injured, there were fundamental issues — poor tackling and overall communication — that led to a number of big plays allowed.
Fixing those issues has been the focus for Butler and his defensive coaching staff throughout the offseason. But whether they have been adequately addressed won't be known until the Steelers report to training camp July 25.
In the meantime, Butler and company continued to work on a lot of different things as the Steelers completed their second day of minicamp Wednesday, that playoff loss still burning a hole in their collective belly.
"Of course it is," Butler said. "You remember that like it was yesterday. It bothers me. I know it bothers the players. We know what happened in the game. We didn’t stop the run and we let them score too much. You look at the dadgum Super Bowl. How many points were scored in the Super Bowl? A ton. I don’t like the way that’s going. We’ve got to try to stem that a little bit."
Stemming it without his most explosive defensive player — Shazier — is more of a reality now than ever. Shazier suffered a serious spinal cord injury last Dec. 4 in Cincinnati and will not play this season. The Steelers know that.
But, unlike the aftermath of the injury last season, when they basically had to make adjustments on the fly with the hope it would work, Butler has had several months to manufacture a plan that will ease the loss of Shazier and make this defense more effective.
What might we see? The Steelers have tinkered with 4-3 looks in the past, stacking one of their outside linebackers behind the line of scrimmage. That could be more prevalent in 2018, though Butler insists the 3-4 front will still be a large part of what the Steelers do.
"I think the 3-4 front was pretty good to us last year in a lot of ways, too," he said. "What you’re talking about (the 4-3), we played at Chicago and they hurt us. What people do, they try to get a big defensive end on the tight end and get a mismatch that way. What they did, was they started taking the tight end and motioning across and get on the other linebacker. They run away from that big defensive end and cut back to him and make him make an open-field tackle. If you look at the Chicago game, that’s what they did. It’s something we can use (against) stuff like that. But defensively, in the National Football League, if you do too much of something, they’ll find it. Are we going to do it? Yes. Are we going to do it all the time? No."
A couple of things that will be changed, however, involve personnel.
In addition to knowing Shazier won't be back, the Steelers also released starting free safety Mike Mitchell prior to the start of free agency. And outside linebackers Bud Dupree and T.J. Watt have flipped sides on the defensive front, with Dupree moving over to the right and Watt going to the left side.
The reasoning for moving Dupree could be sound — if it works out.
"The quarterback can’t see Bud on the right side. You could see him on the left side," Butler said. "What Bud did too much of last season is that Bud got past the quarterback. To me, you’re useless if you’re past the quarterback. Now, he won’t be as useless behind the quarterback. He can duck up and under where the quarterback doesn’t see him. T.J. will be a little bit more disciplined in the way he’ll try to contain the quarterback and scrape the pocket around."
So why not make that move during the season?
"I had a rookie and a guy that hadn’t been in the league very long," Butler said. "We started them that way in training camp. We didn’t think it was a good idea halfway through to switch them because we weren’t being unsuccessful in games."
The Steelers opened OTA sessions with those two swapping and are sticking with it. Outside linebackers coach Joey Porter likes what he's seen of it thus far, but the pads haven't been put on yet, either.
"We felt like he had a lot of good rushes from the left side, but the quarterback would see him," Porter said of Dupree. "Putting him on the blind side gives him an opportunity to have a good rush and the quarterback doesn’t see him. So far, so good.
"Everything right now is a work in progress. Anything can change, but right now, he’s on the right side."
As for the free safety spot, the Steelers are rotating free agent signing Morgan Burnett, strong safety Sean Davis and first-round draft pick Terrell Edmunds, among others, as the single-high safety in a lot of different situations, looking for the right fit.
That will continue on into training camp.
"We have our thoughts. But I don’t think you make a decision until you see everyone in pads," Butler said. "I like Terrell. He’s very vocal. I like that about him. But he’s played at the college level. He hasn’t played at the NFL level. We’ll see how he adjusts.
"Morgan, we know he can play. We know he’ll do a good job for us. We know SD can play. We know SD has a lot of range. Who’s going to be the post safety, who’s going to be down in the box, we haven’t decided that yet. We’ll wait for training camp and see what we’ve got and we’ll make a decision then."
The key, as much as anything, will be tackling.
The Steelers want communication out of that position, which is expected to be the quarterback of the secondary. But Butler also wants a player capable of getting opposing ballcarriers on the ground consistently.
While the Steelers weren't happy with the 24 pass plays of 30 or more yards they allowed last season, they were downright humbled by the 10 rushing plays of 20 or more yards they gave up.
"You come here and try to run the ball, that’s what we want," said Porter. "That’s our strength. That’s what the Steelers are known for. We couldn’t stop it. Everybody has a bitter taste in their mouth, (coaches) included. It’s something we want to address. It’s something that’s been addressed. I think we’ve got the pieces in place to do it. Now, we’re just looking forward to the season."
Butler feels finding the right safety tandem will go a long way toward helping that.
"The times that we’ve been No. 1 against the run, we had safeties that made plays eight yards after they broke the line of scrimmage," Butler said. "Those eight or nine-yard runs, they turn into 50-yard runs, 60-yard runs, that’s when the average goes up quite a bit. In times past, when we’ve been real good against the run, we’ve had really good tackling safeties in the middle of the field for us. That’s a factor in terms of what we’re looking for."
MATT SUNDAY GALLERY
Steelers practice, UPMC Rooney Sports Complex, June 13, 2018 - MATT SUNDAY