Steelers first-round rookie Derrick Harmon had a quiet preseason debut against the Jacksonville Jaguars on Aug. 9, ending the day with a blank stat sheet.
He quickly corrected that in his second-career preseason game a week later against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, logging one sack, one tackle for loss, and three total tackles.
While his first game was hardly cause for concern, it was the second that showed why Harmon went in the first round. It was an all-around performance that had both splash plays
and proof that the Oregon product can handle the dirty work from down to down.
Here was Harmon’s first play against the Buccaneers – with mostly starters on the Tampa Bay offensive line – on Saturday. I originally clipped this play to highlight the contributions of two of his teammates, but the rookie impressed as well.
Harmon talked postgame about how he felt he used his “extension” better from preseason Week 1 to 2, and this play exemplifies it well. Harmon (No. 99) has an incredibly powerful upper half, and with one arm he shoves back the right guard, helping push the run back left and to an eventual tackle for loss.
A few plays later, Harmon showed his strength in a more subtle way. Initially combo blocked, he still worked his way into the path of the run, helping force another cutback and a short gain.
A few plays later was Harmon’s most underrated rep of the night, versus the combination of the Buccaneers’ Graham Barton and Ben Bredeson who he’d battle throughout the first quarter. Harmon helps collapse the pocket with a strong bull rush against Barton. Bredeson tries to help out and gets shoved to the ground with the defensive tackle’s free arm. You love to see it.
(A few other things I liked from the above play: Nick Herbig’s bend! Watch how Cole Holcomb mugging the B-gap throws off Bredeson’s balance — and some great power from Keeanu Benton! One of many great reps of team defensive line play on Saturday).
Going up against a rock-solid Buccaneers interior offensive line, the wins didn’t come easy to Harmon, but his efforts were still positive.
Here’s another solid rep against the Tampa Bay first team. Once again faced with two blockers, Harmon shows off some nice hand usage with a swim move to disengage Bredeson, even if he can’t power past Barton in time to prevent the touchdown throw.
But you can’t expect the one double-teamed lineman to be the one to sack the quarterback. It’s a solid play from the rookie.
Working against starting right guard Cody Mauch later in the game, Harmon can’t swim by, but he takes advantage of Mauch turning his body slightly to convert to a bull rush and collapse the pocket yet again on Teddy Bridgewater.
The next play was a good hustle effort from Harmon to disengage from two blockers and catch up with the run, still getting involved with the tackle.
I don’t want to give the impression that it was a night of dominance for Harmon. The Bucs’ starting O-line put up a good fight themselves – here’s Bredeson controlling Harmon up the arc on an end-tackle stunt on the following pass play:
But the takeaway is that Harmon, even as a rookie, has what it takes to play big guy football in the NFL trenches. He’s not winning consistently with quickness and hand usage like he could in college – that will come with time – but he has the power and tenacity to eat up double teams and hold his ground against the run. And he’ll get some highlights in there too.
His bull rush is already a good go-to move to start with as a rookie pass rusher. And on a defensive front with Cam Heyward, T.J. Watt, Alex Highsmith, Keeanu Benton, and Nick Herbig, he won’t be double-teamed on nearly every play like he was on Saturday. Harmon could definitely take advantage of some favorable matchups during the regular season.
Case in point: When the Tampa Bay backups entered the game, Harmon simply couldn’t be contained.
However, he couldn’t quite finish the day on a high note, missing a tackle on an otherwise excellent two-gapping rep on his second-to-last play of the game.
Struggles to finish plays was Harmon’s greatest weakness in college, and it’s an area of his game he’ll have to keep working on in the pros.
But after Yahya Black’s fantastic debut in preseason Week 1, and then Harmon’s excellent showing in Week 2, the early stock report on the Pittsburgh 2025 draft class says early returns are looking great on the team’s defensive line picks.
