The decision to not bring Joey Porter back in 2019 is a direct result of his failure to develop a dynamic pass rush from the outside linebackers.
Sure, T.J Watt had a huge year with 13 sacks, the most any Steelers linebacker has recorded since LaMarr Woodley’s 13.5 in 2009. But one has to wonder if that had anything to do with Porter, considering the lack of progress in his other outside linebackers.
Let’s examine that question, as well as the 2018 grades on all the Steelers’ linebackers:
Porter joined the Steelers in 2014, a year after they drafted Jarvis Jones with the 17th pick in the first round, and a year before they drafted Bud Dupree with the 22nd pick in the first round.
Jones proved to be a complete waste of a pick, recording six sacks in 35 starts over four seasons and never solidifying a contributory role to the team. He has been out of the NFL since the Steelers let him go after the 2016 season.
Being fair to Porter, Jones was responsible for his own failure in the NFL. Pinning it on Porter would ignore the fact Jones isn’t in the league anymore.
Dupree is another matter, though, as he was never a traditional pass rusher at Kentucky and was going to be a project when it came to technique. His athleticism made him stand out in his draft class, but he lacked the traditional bend and proper hand techniques to consistently win edge battles.
Porter never really developed that in Dupree in their four years together. Dupree became a better run defender as he kept his outside shoulder free and was much more accountable than Jones or Jason Worilds at that aspect of his job.
But the Steelers’ best years have been when they get to the quarterback, and that still hasn’t become a strength for Dupree. His 5.5 sacks in 2018 were only a half sack short of his best season in 2017 — he also drew a holding penalty against the Browns at Heinz Field that resulted in a safety on a play where he had Baker Mayfield dead to rights were it not for the hold.
Even though his progress isn’t what the Steelers expected from a first-round pick, if any of it was from his work with Porter, it would be a credit to the coach.
Unfortunately for Porter, that wasn’t the case. After the Steelers beat the Panthers 52-21 at Heinz Field in November, I asked Dupree about an improvement in his pass rush that I noticed in recent games. He had a sack in back-to-back games that followed the safety he forced against the Browns, making three straight games he impacted with his pass rush. His response was telling.
"Coach Tomlin just turned me loose," said Dupree after his two tackles for loss and a sack against the Panthers. "He told me to do what I do best and what I do best is speed. I'm fast, I'm big, I just run over people or I run past people. He just told me to cut loose and it's working out."
Not only did Dupree credit Mike Tomlin, not Porter, for his increase in production, but he indicated that he was allowed to go back to his natural speed rush tactics rather than that of a traditional 3-4 outside linebacker.
That tells me that whatever Porter was teaching Dupree wasn’t getting through and Tomlin decided to scrap Porter's project of converting Dupree into a traditional pass rusher and let Dupree work to his own strengths.
If you’re wondering whether that’s just Dupree throwing Porter under the bus, don’t. Dupree has never said a bad word about Porter. Even after the team announced that he wouldn’t be back, Dupree stood up for Porter on Twitter when reports surfaced that Porter was a source of turmoil among the team.
Oh so we just making up lies now
— Big Bud (@Bud_Dupree) January 9, 2019
Even if there weren’t players complaining about Porter, the team had plenty to consider when deciding to renew his contract.
Regardless of Jones’ and Dupree’s personal skills, Porter couldn’t develop either first-round pick into elite or even proficient 3-4 pass rushers.
Watt was the one example in Porter’s favor. He had eight sacks in 2017 and his increase to 13 came from an improved consistency in varying hand techniques against offensive tackles. That’s good technical growth through experience.
But part of that could be from Watt switching from right to left outside linebacker, his familiar side from college — a story our Dale Lolley broke here at DKPittsburghSports.com.
Whether that came from Porter is uncertain, but it’s obvious that Watt's growth alone was not enough to keep Porter.
FINAL GRADES
Here's how these will work: We will grade each unit on the team and display how the players did through each quarter of the season, with each quarter represented by four games. Our War Room series has graded players on our stars and skulls system, so it's time to add them all up and show their final marks.
As a reminder, here was our breakdown of all the tackling metrics we recorded this season:
Each game was graded on this scale:
Had a big play or a decent game 
Very impressive, multiple big plays
Elite performance
Gave up a big play without redemption 
Total performance was a disappointment
Horrible, inexcusable
If a player was average or unremarkable, they received no mark for that game. We have tallied all their performances to see who was the top of the class.
Valedictorian: T.J. Watt
First quarter: 3 1 4 Games
Second quarter:70 4 Games
Third quarter:52 4 Games
Fourth quarter:110 4 Games
Final marks: 263 A-
Best game: Week 11 at Jaguars
Worst game: Week 12 at Broncos
Watt was the brightest light among the linebackers, with 13 sacks, 68 tackles, six forced fumbles and three passes defended. My biggest criticism of Watt's game in 2017 was his lack of variety in pass-rush techniques. He started his rookie year strong, but faded as the year continued and relied more on pure athleticism to win edge battles, a factor that works against edge rushers.
That changed in 2018, as he employed a combination of regular rip moves, bull rushes and swim moves to get to the quarterback. He even managed to combine moves all in a single rush.
Watch his sack and forced fumble on Blake Bortles, where he bull-rushes the tight end and shoves him out of the way, then uses his inside hand on a rip move to prevent the right tackle from engaging him with his hands. The combination of those moves led to him gaining the proper bend around the edge and getting a good swipe at Bortles, forcing the fumble:
While he had three sacks against the Browns, his performance against the Jaguars was a huge reason for a major second half turnaround. Not only did he record two sacks, but he was a major contributor to shutting down Leonard Fournette.
If Watt continues the trajectory he is currently on, the Steelers may have a legendary pass rusher who terrorizes the NFL for the next decade.
Jon Bostic
First quarter: 5 1 4 Games
Second quarter:50 4 Games
Third quarter:60 4 Games
Fourth quarter:20 4 Games
Final marks: 181 B
Best game: Week 10 vs Panthers
Worst game: Week 2 at Chiefs
Jon Bostic is a peculiar case because of how he was used. He was very good against the run, which was why he was acquired in free agency. But against the pass he was below average. The Steelers recognized this and reduced his snaps in the second half of the season when they started facing more reputable quarterbacks.
Bostic received high grades early because he was allowed to thrive in the style of play familiar to him. Even in the second half, the Steelers tried their best to keep him on the field just for situations when they expected the run. One of the moments that backfired was one of the more infamous of the season, when Keenan Allen caught a 12-yard pass as Bostic was covering him.
You can see how uncomfortable Bostic is in his stance as he basically sells out to take away the middle of the field from Allen, but that opens up an easy completion that put the Chargers in range for the game-winning field goal:
Bostic's role with the team was as expected, but they cannot afford to make him the primary "Mack" linebacker in 2019. If he's still on the team, he has to be a run support backup to Vince Williams and whatever player Kevin Colbert adds through free agency or the draft.
Vince Williams
First quarter: 2 1 4 Games
Second quarter:50 3 Games
Third quarter:71 4 Games
Fourth quarter:42 4 Games
Final marks: 18 4 B
Best game: Week 15 vs Patriots
Worst game: Week 14 at Raiders
Williams was a better player than many gave him credit for in 2018 because of his communication and ability to help against the pass. In 2017, his contributions against the pass came in the form of eight sacks, but in 2018 his contributions came in coverage. Though he only recorded two passes defended, his coverage closed down passing windows to make more difficult throws for even the best quarterbacks.
Case in point, this stop on a third-and-five against Tom Brady and James White. The Patriots love to match White up with linebackers in the flat and use him as an extra receiver against defenders that won't be as comfortable covering his quick cuts. Williams blanketed White and perfectly reacted to the comeback route, preventing Brady from having a comfortable passing window:
Williams still isn't the prime linebacker that this defense needs in the middle to create chaos, but he's a very reliable asset that has worked to diversify his skill set to the Steelers' various needs. Moving forward, he will be a significant piece to keeping the defense together in its communication of assignments and pre-snap adjustments.
L.J. Fort
First quarter: 0 0 4 Games
Second quarter:21 4 Games
Third quarter:40 4 Games
Fourth quarter:22 4 Games
Final marks: 83 C+
Best game: Week 5 vs Falcons
Worst game: Week 16 at Saints
L.J. Fort had a solid showing in 2018 because he combined his pure athleticism with improved technical skills to increase the variety of schemes he can play in the defense. In 2017, Fort was primarily a run-and-tackle linebacker that looked uncomfortable in a scheme whenever his assignment wasn't simply covering a running back in space.
That changed in 2018 as he still helped in coverage, but also helped against the run and flashed pass rush skills the Steelers could build on for 2019. Here's a spin move he used to get through the A-Gap (between center and guard) and force Case Keenum to throw a ball earlier than he wanted, resulting in him just missing an open Emmanuel Sanders who had a step on Joe Haden:
Fort still struggles recognizing different assignments and being a consistent contributor against the run, but he's certainly grown. He shouldn't be relied upon as a starter in 2019, but he's a useful player for sub-package defenses against the pass and a serviceable backup when injuries deplete the top of the depth chart.
Bud Dupree
First quarter: 3 4 4 Game
Second quarter:22 4 Games
Third quarter:32 4 Games
Fourth quarter:40 4 Games
Final marks: 128 C-
Best game: Week 3 at Buccaneers
Worst game: Week 2 vs Chiefs
Dupree had a roller coaster season. He interchanged positive and negative grades for the first four games of the season, then had three straight negative performances followed by four straight positive ones.
But the bottom line for Dupree is that he's still not a good enough tackler or pass rusher to be a premier player. He had several games when he was solid against the run, and a run of games in the middle of the season when he contributed against the pass, but he's nowhere near consistent at either to justify having the second most snaps of any linebacker.
His lack of production would be more forgivable if he was always in the right position and was chasing ball carriers to other players, but that too often wasn't the case. Here he is freezing on the edge and allowing Sammy Watkins to run right by him because he didn't get deep enough to establish his gap on the reverse:
Dupree flashed some very good moments despite his bad ones, which is why he had more stars than skulls on the season. But the bottom line is that when you play that often and only have a marginal difference between your good and bad games, you need to step it up.
Anthony Chickillo
First quarter: 0 0 4 Games
Second quarter:60 4 Games
Third quarter:00 4 Games
Fourth quarter:00 4Games
Final marks: 00 C
Best game: Week 9 at Ravens
Worst game: Week 11 at Broncos
The struggle I had with giving Anthony Chickillo positive and negative grades was that he often didn't get enough snaps to receive actual grades, and when he did he would follow up a good play with a mistake.
Chickillo is your average backup that's in position most of the time and is valuable to the team because they don't have any other veteran outside linebackers, though he is a solid special teams contributor. But he's not the guy this team can sub in and expect an impact play.
Note: I've excluded Tyler Matakevich, Ola Adeyini and Matthew Thomas as none of them received skulls or stars this season and had minimal opportunities to play. Plus, Thomas is now with the Ravens.
Linebackers final grade: B
First quarter average: C+
Second quarter average: B+
Third quarter average: B
Fourth quarter average: B+
Watt's upstart season added a spark to the unit that needed more playmakers. But outside of him the Steelers' linebackers are a group of role players that flash different skill sets, each with their own very exploitable weaknesses. Williams and Watt were the best contributors while the rest stuck to their assignments and attempted their best within Keith Butler's and Tomlin's schemes.
For this unit to grow, it needs playmakers. The Steelers cannot afford to go into 2019 without the addition of another premiere edge rusher, or an X-factor inside linebacker that can provide above average coverage over the middle.
From the Steelers' season totals, Watt was the only player that forced multiple fumbles in 2018, while Dupree and Williams each recorded a single interception. The Steelers' defense has been at its best when its linebackers are at the center of creating havoc. That hasn't been the case for years, and it needs to change if this defense is going to become a great group again.
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