The Pittsburgh Steelers are just days away from opening their 2025 season against the New York Jets. I’m excited to kick off a new weekly article highlighting intriguing position group battles the Steelers will face. This opener brings compelling storylines: Aaron Rodgers and Justin Fields take on former teams, and both organizations debut key offseason changes. As the Jets build a new identity under head coach Aaron Glenn, the Steelers work to return to their roots.
Pittsburgh’s improved run defense vs. New York’s run game
Unfortunately for the Jets, just
as I began writing this article, news broke that starting interior offensive lineman Alijah Vera-Tucker had suffered a season-ending injury. With key injuries on both the Steelers’ defensive line and now the Jets’ offensive line, this positional matchup becomes even more interesting.
Let’s take a moment to think about Aaron Glenn as a head coach. While he is a defensive-minded head coach, he comes from a place that loves to run the football. The Lions built their team from the inside out, establishing one of the best offensive line units in the league through the draft and utilizing multiple running backs. Over the last several seasons, the Lions have made at least the divisional round for two years straight. Now Glenn finds himself leading an organization that has not made the playoffs since 2010, when they lost to the Steelers in the AFC Championship game.
Oddly enough, this Jets roster mirrors the Lions in several ways.
Now, I know exactly what you are thinking. “Joey, this team is nowhere close to being on the level of Detroit!” You’re not wrong, but hear me out.
The Jets will have a better tandem of running backs than we give them credit for. Breece Hall had a down year in 2024, but he has shown he is capable of averaging over 5 yards per carry, as he did during his rookie season before it was cut short. Braelon Allen also presents a unique skillset. Allen was the youngest player in the league last season, as he only just turned 21 years old back in January. The Jets’ pair of backs form a formidable one-two punch, which should feel familiar to Glenn. While Hall and Allen have different skillsets than Jahmyr Gibbs and David Montgomery, you can get an idea of what New York is hoping those two will be.
In addition to their running back tandem, the Jets are certain to have their quarterback in the mix. Steelers fans know what Justin Fields offers — if nothing else, he will elevate New York’s running game. A lot needs to go right, but if it does, the potential is there for the trio of Fields, Hall, and Allen to form one of the more potent rushing attacks in the NFL.
For this experiment to work, the Jets’ young offensive line will need to pay off on all the investments the organization has sunk into it in recent seasons. Despite the Vera-Tucker injury, they are still loaded with talented young linemen, at least on paper. New York has spent first-round selections on Armand Membou and Olu Fashanu in each of the last two drafts, giving them a young tackle duo for the future. John Simpson and Joe Tippmann are powerful players who excel in run blocking, often in tandem. Simpson, a fourth-round pick in 2020 by the Raiders who signed with the Jets last season, is the old man of the group at 28 years old. Tippman was a second-round pick in 2023, and the team added Josh Myers this offseason, a former second-round pick of the Packers in 2021.
The Jets’ line has the draft pedigree, and pairing it with several weapons in the backfield should set them up to be a formidable rushing attack.
What makes the battle between the Jets’ running game and the Steelers’ run defense so intriguing is the opportunity it gives us to judge whether all of the adjustments the Steelers made this offseason will be improvements.
That overhaul started with the interior. As we all remember, the Steelers gave up 299 yards rushing in their playoff loss to Baltimore. First-rounder Derrick Harmon will be a key piece to preventing that from happening again, but we’ll have to wait to see him in action. Harmon won’t be playing Sunday, unfortunately, as he recovers from an injury he suffered against the Carolina Panthers in the preseason finale.
Still, there will be other guys who have to step up for Pittsburgh.
Yahya Black is one person the Steelers will need to step up on Sunday. Black was a stud throughout camp and the preseason, and I do not say that lightly. If you didn’t know any better, you would think Black went to the Heyward and Watt school of batting down passes.
The young defensive lineman was in a run-stopping scheme playing in the Big Ten at Iowa. It was a limited role, but that alone was reason enough for the Steelers to select him in the draft. Without Harmon, the Day 3 pick is the most likely player to see an increased role. Black should get a chance to shine in his first NFL game as the Jets are almost certainly going to try to control the clock with the running game. Last year, going down a starting defensive lineman would have put Pittsburgh in a dire position. It will be refreshing to see a Steelers defensive line with depth at the defensive tackle position, and with the date of Harmon’s return up in the air, it’s already paying dividends.
In addition to the defensive line changes, Jalen Ramsey is one of the more physical corners in the history of the NFL. His style of play allows him to be involved near the line of scrimmage to assist in stopping the run. Depending on how the Steelers deploy him, there could be plays where Ramsey, lining up in the slot, could be tasked with spying and chasing down Fields when he escapes from the pocket on Sunday.
Not that they need any introduction, but TJ Watt and Cam Heyward are fully healthy, and as long as they are playing, the Steelers will have one of the more talented defensive rosters in the entire NFL. Heyward’s situation is something to monitor, but should not be a cause for much concern as of now, after sitting out of Thursday’s practice with what was reported as a veteran’s rest day.
With injuries on both sides, I think the Steelers’ run defense will show they have improved from last year on Sunday. The Jets are the perfect team to gauge just how much this part of the Steelers has improved. Both units are currently unproven, but have been heavily invested in. The Jets have amassed a lot of talent, but the additions and experience the Steelers have on defense will be too much for New York to handle in the end. I expect the Steelers to have the edge in what is the most important positional battle in Sunday’s contest.
How do you see the Steelers’ run defense performing in this game, and throughout the rest of the season? Will the Jets be able to expose the Steelers despite a clear effort to improve their running game? Let us know in the comments!
