The Steelers players with the largest salary cap numbers are Ben Roethlisberger, Cam Heyward and Stephon Tuitt. Roethlisberger is the two-time Super Bowl champion franchise quarterback who drives the offense and Heyward is the captain of the defense with 20 sacks in the past two seasons.
Tuitt, however, hasn't made his big splash yet. His 5.5 sacks last season were the second most of his career behind the 6.5 he totaled in 2015. At 26 years old and costing the Steelers more than $13.6 million in cap space the next three seasons, Tuitt is one of their bigger talents and has to deliver in a major way:
A quick glance over Tuitt's stat sheet shows a player who's playing well, but isn't elite. Tuitt's contract is for a player who produces elite results and those results must be delivered to justify its huge chunk of the Steelers' salary cap, now with just slightly over $1 million to spend for the rest of 2019 and slightly over $9 million in 2020.
But having followed Tuitt's career closely, I'm not one to think his lack of production is from lack of talent or effort. There were 11 different plays where a quarterback completed a pass while under pressure from Tuitt. He's often a target for double teams from offensive lines and is a wrecking ball when healthy.
Tuitt's lack of a big sack year is from a mix of factors, including his injury history, quarterbacks having easy check-downs to avoid sacks, and his own personal growth in skills.
There's no doubt that Tuitt is one of the biggest and baddest bullies the Steelers have on their team. In any game, you can see him crash down an offensive line to plug multiple gaps and work his way through blockers to cause havoc. Here's an example when he did just that on a sack of Drew Brees.
Watch how Tuitt works from directly over the right guard, Larry Warford and crosses face to also get picked up by center Max Unger. Neither player can stop Tuitt's momentum as he collapses the pocket on Brees and gets the sack.
Watch Tuitt's feet compared Warford's to see how quick he gets off the ball and crosses Warford's face to get to Unger. The combination of quick feet changing into a power rush to bulldoze his way to Brees is nothing short of astonishing:
Both Warford and Unger went to the Pro Bowl in 2018, and both already had been there in years prior. The reason I chose this play was because Tuitt's raw strength is powerful enough to control and beat two star linemen on one of the best teams in the NFL. Tuitt's sacks aren't the result of flukes or luck, they're because he's manhandling the competition.
Tuitt's number of sacks would be much higher were it not for injuries like torn biceps that have slowed him down in multiple seasons. But it also is a result of the coverage problems that have plagued the Steelers' defense for years. The lack of consistency among cornerbacks, safeties and coverage linebackers has allowed quarterbacks to find quick options to get rid of the football.
Remember when I broke down how the Steelers' defense was picked apart by Keenan Allen in their loss to the Chargers? Phillip Rivers found his top receiver lined up against Bud Dupree and other linebackers not suited for coverage against a premier NFL receiver.
Here's a play where Tuitt shot through B-gap and was breathing down Rivers' neck, but Rivers was able to fire a quick pass to Allen for the first down. As you can see, Allen is being guarded by Dupree, a horrible matchup for the Steelers:
The Steelers' investment into coverage players like Steven Nelson, Justin Layne, Mark Barron and Devin Bush should help with those problems. Include the further development of young players like Terrell Edmunds and Sean Davis at safety and there's a lot more optimism that coverage packages can be relied upon to give Tuitt, Heyward and T.J. Watt more time to create sacks.
Tuitt will have a big opportunity to live up to his huge contract and be one of the Steelers' top producers on defense. He was one of the most efficient tacklers for the Steelers in 2018, and looking at his work on tape, there are a lot of reasons to believe this will be the year he finally breaks out and shocks the NFL.
