At the snap of the ball, the linebacker crashed into center B.J. Finney, driving him backward into the backfield.
On the next snap, he did it again. And then again.
It wasn't all that uncommon to see the Steelers attacking the center at the snap. After all, they employ nose tackles Javon Hargrave and Daniel McCullers to do just that. But in this case, the player attacking the center at the snap of the ball was outside linebacker Bud Dupree.
The Steelers unveiled the look last Sunday at their Family Fest at Heinz Field, stacking Dupree, all 270 pounds of him, behind the line of scrimmage in their goal line series and having him take a running start at the center at the snap of the ball.
"It's something new," Dupree told me afterward. "I haven't done it since college. But I like it. I takes advantage of my speed and power."
Dupree's power and speed are unique, much like a slightly lesser version of the Texans' Jadeveon Clowney. The Texans move Clowney all over, allowing him to use his blend of power and speed to shoot gaps and disrupt the offense. Like Dupree, Clowney doesn't bend around the edge real well. But Clowney does have 29 sacks in the past four seasons because the Texans move him around and allow him to play to his strengths.
Dupree hasn't turned into the pass rushing specialist the Steelers had hoped he'd become. But he does bring some special talents to the table. It looks like, in his fifth year in the NFL, they might finally be looking for ways to best take advantage of them.
"If you blow up the center like that, it can throw things off," former Steelers nose tackle Chris Hoke told me. "And he has the power and speed to do that."
The Steelers are paying Dupree $9.2 million this season after they picked up the fifth-year option on his rookie contract. He'll be an unrestricted free agent at the end of this season. And if he gets the 15 sacks he's set as a goal for this season, he'll likely be too expensive for them to re-sign. If he has another 5.5-sack season like he did a year ago, they probably won't want to re-sign him.
But the Steelers feel if they can find different ways to use the 26-year-old, he could have that breakout season.
"I’m hoping for it. He’s got a lot of talent," Keith Butler told me. "I think the more he plays, the more he understands where everybody else is, the better off he’ll be. We’ll see."
MORE STEELERS
• I asked Mike Tomlin the other day about the losses the team had in the offseason on its special teams units. Darrius Heyward-Bey and L.J. Fort combined for more than 500 special teams snaps a year ago -- including a team-high 333 for Fort -- and both are now gone. But Tomlin was quick to mention Roosevelt Nix, Tyler Matakevich, Anthony Chickillo and Jordan Dangerfield all are back and logged a lot of special teams snaps, as well. Those four were the only other players than Fort to log more than 300 special teams snaps for the team last season and are locks to make the roster this year. "Coach T and I have a great relationship," Dangerfield told me. "He understands what kind of player I am and what I can do." -- Lolley
• T.J. Watt said in the spring he wanted to be a more vocal leader. At his first full practice this week, we got a chance to see what that means. Watt's a pretty quiet guy off the field. But he was fired up for the "Seven Shots" session Wednesday. "This is where we set the (bleeping) tone!" he yelled over and over to his defensive mates before session began. Then, when it came time for the live running portion of practice, he again took the field loudly. "Let's (bleeping) go!" he yelled over and over. This is a whole new side to Watt, at least publicly. -- Lolley
• Javon Hargrave still doesn't have a contract offer from the Steelers, but he didn't sound remotely concerned, much less consumed by it in a conversation we had this week. He sees the upcoming season, the last one on his rookie contract, as pivotal regardless of his status. "I know what's at stake because we all know what's at stake," he told me. "We feel like we've got the ability to be a great defense. All of us as a unit. When you're part of that, that's what you're thinking about." -- DK
PIRATES
• Josh Bell flatly, bluntly will reject the notion that the Home Run Derby had any impact on his post-break slump, even if the line of demarcation is fairly close to that stage of the season. As he told me, "I was struggling a little before that, too," and he's right. But he's also acknowledged, in the days and weeks since all the fanfare at Cleveland, that he felt significant pressure to perform well in both the Derby and his first All-Star Game. He hasn't come close to citing it as an excuse -- that's not exactly his style -- but the mere mention of it has had me wondering if that whole event took something of a toll from which he didn't fully rebound by the time the team got to Wrigley that weekend. -- DK
• I can't count on one hand the number of times the topic of the front office or management comes up in the Pirates' clubhouse, on or off the record. It's just not a focal point. Clint Hurdle and the coaching staff have always kept their world insulated enough that the focus is baseball, baseball, baseball, and that's really not all that hard with a new game and a new challenge every day. That said, two different players approached me in the past week with concerns expressed about management decisions, one of which was that Bryan Reynolds wouldn't have been promoted to the majors in 2019 "even if he'd hit .500 in Indy," had it not been for injuries in Pittsburgh. The other concern was more general, about the lack of support when the team was still in contention. It's hardly some tidal wave, but it's more than the usual nothing. -- DK
• That said, if there's been even a peep of anyone being in actual trouble, I haven't picked up on it. There have been some unusual stirrings, but nothing substantive. -- DK
• Among the players who's been most displeased with the team's overall performance since the break has been Starling Marte. I know what the perception is of Marte, but I also know the reality. And I know that on the day he got his 1,000th hit in New York and I approached his stall to simply offer a congratulatory handshake, he really cut loose about how deeply disappointing all this has been. Wish more people could see this side. -- DK
• The Pirates might just own the world's most expensive storage unit. Lonnie Chisenhall's locker inside the Pirates' clubhouse at PNC Park has steadily amassed shoe boxes, signs, athletic tape and similar useless items throughout the season. Now, it looks like it could be featured on an episode of Hoarders. The Pirates signed Chisenhall on a one-year, $2.75 million deal in November of 2018, but he's yet to make an appearance with the team due to injury. He's off the grid, rehabbing an alleged calf injury on his own in North Carolina. When asked about Chisenhall's status last Wednesday, Pirates director of sports medicine and head athletic trainer Todd Tomczyk simply said, "No update" with a sarcastic laugh. -- Hunter Homistek
PENGUINS
• Mike Sullivan and Jim Rutherford have made no secret of their interest in stocking the lineup with versatile players, guys who can work at at least two positions and, ideally, move up and down the lineup, as circumstances demand. The Penguins have, however, collected so many of those players, including off-season acquisitions Dominik Kahun and Alex Galchenyuk, that it's fair to wonder if the coaching staff will suffer from what is known as the "paradox of choice" when trying to figure out line combinations during training camp. That bit of wisdom holds that having too many options actually can make an individual unhappy, counter-intuitive as that might seem. In this case, though, it might well apply, because there's a limited amount of time during camp, and the large group of versatile forwards the Penguins have might not give Sullivan adequate time to experiment with all of the possibilities that appeal to him. In theory, that could mean that what might be the ideal configurations of his lines never get an opportunity to show what they can do. -- Dave Molinari
• Bill Guerin is in the running for the GM job in Minnesota and even if he isn't hired there, he figures to be a viable candidate for every GM position that comes open until he finally lands one. If/when he moves on, Guerin will add to the list of front-office figures who learned their craft while working for the Penguins before taking a position elsewhere. Chuck Fletcher, who had been Ray Shero's assistant, was the first to take over another team, as he was named GM in Minnesota in 2009. Six years later, Tom Fitzgerald joined Shero in New Jersey, and since has burnished his credentials as a can't-miss GM candidate. In 2017, Rutherford's associate GM, Jason Botterill, took over as GM in Buffalo. While the perils of that kind of brain drain are obvious, the Penguins' success in identifying and developing front-office talent should make them attractive to talented personnel who aspire to learn the ropes in an organization with a track record of preparing assistants for the challenges of overseeing their own operation -- and allowing them pursue whatever opportunities come along when they feel they're ready to be in charge. -- Molinari
• Rutherford's priority of late has been clearing some salary-cap space, which he says is necessary before restricted free agent Marcus Pettersson can be re-signed. What he hasn't done yet is to commit any significant time to crafting the speech he will deliver when he's inducted to the Hockey Hall of Fame in November. "I haven't gotten to that yet," he said. Rutherford added that he has considered some elements of the message he hopes to deliver "in my mind," but added that he hasn't settled on the particular points he hopes to make. Rutherford was a goaltender with several NHL teams, including the Penguins, but will enter the Hall as a Builder, recognition of his work in the front office of Carolina and the Penguins. Defenseman Sergei Zubov, who played one season with the Penguins, also is a member of the Hall's Class of 2019. -- Molinari
