When the Steelers signed Anthony Chickillo to a two-year, $8 million contract, they locked in just the third outside linebacker on their roster who had played more than nine snaps with the team in 2018.
I wrote about Ola Adeniyi this week and the benefit of his combination of youth and upside, but Chickillo is the reliable veteran the Steelers need to back up T.J. Watt and Bud Dupree should either player go down with injury. The 295 snaps he played in 2018 accounted for more than 28 percent of the team's defensive plays.
He's no star in the making, but he's a role player who earned his keep by being a hustle player with a grasp on the basics:
Chickillo enters his fifth NFL season with just nine starts, but a young career with the Steelers as the only defensive system he's had to learn makes him someone Mike Tomlin and Keith Butler want to keep around. When you talk to him, he'll be the first to tell you he's no X's and O's guru. But that never stops him from understanding his role as an edge defender.
Watch how he contains the edge on this stretch run. Chickillo uses his hands to stay engaged with tight end Eric Saubert to set the edge, then disengages and tackles Devonta Freeman for a loss:
These are the basics you can expect from Chickillo against the run and within a scheme. He won't blow someone up at the line, but he will hold his spot and fight to maintain his position. That's the standard for backup linebackers, and he lives up to that.
But don't expect Chickillo to be a contributor in the sack count. He has seven sacks in four seasons and only 1.5 sacks from 2018. Those sacks are usually a result of Chickillo's hustle to stick with a play and catch an offense when it's unaware or by fighting through a busted play.
But when Chickillo runs up against a tough edge spot, don't expect him to win when engaged. Watch how he competes against Garrett Bolles on the right side of the defense. Bolles gets his hands inside of Chickillo's frame and just moves him back a couple of steps, enough for Phillip Lindsay to burst through B-gap and gain 18 yards:
Bolles is no star tackle, but he presents the challenge that Chickillo faces when he meets someone who can beat a veteran with a simple grasp of the basics.
Chickillo's two-year, $8 million contract may sound hefty for a guy who is a basic role player and a backup, but that's because it leaves the Steelers a lot of wiggle room next season. He costs the team only $1.9 million in cap space for 2019 and that number jumps to more than $6 million in 2020. But $5 million of the 2020 cap hit would return to the Steelers should he be a pre-June cut next year.
That makes 2019 a chance for Chickillo to prove himself for an extension or to become a free agent target next year. There's no way the Steelers pass on the opportunity to clear $5 million in cap space when they currently only have $9 million open next year and need to re-sign players like Javon Hargrave, Joe Haden, Bud Dupree and Sean Davis.
But if Chickillo does perform well in some good reserve starts for the Steelers, there's a chance he could play his way into Kevin Colbert extending his contract to stretch that $5 million out over another few years. And if that wouldn't happen, he could explore free agency to sign for another team.
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