On paper, there might not be a defense in the NFL with more talent than the Pittsburgh Steelers. But in recent years, former Teryl Austin has squandered that talent and forced this group into mediocrity. But new head coach Mike McCarthy brought in new defensive coordinator Patrick Graham who we hope can maximize all these high draft picks and bring the Steelers defense back to relevance and put this group back where it belongs among the rest of the NFL.
With the team's first regular season game just a week away, we decided to rank the team's defensive positional units to see if that group of edge defenders is still on top and what position we are most worried about.
1 - EDGE defender
The trio of T.J. Watt, Alex Highsmith and Nick Herbig are aiming for a huge bounce
back this season in Graham's defense. These three are all fully capable of double-digit sacks and it could happen this season.
2 - Cornerback
We nearly put cornerback at No. 1 after the addition this offseason of Jamel Dean and rookie Daylen Everett. But even moving Jalen Ramsey back to cornerback can't push this group over the top as long as we don't know if Joey Porter Jr. is going to play this season, thanks to his contract dispute.
3 - Defensive line
The biggest move of the offseason for Pittsburgh on the defensive line was to move Keeanu Benton to defensive end and make Yahya Black the starting nose tackle. This puts both players in their best positions to win and makes this unit even better.
4 - Inside linebacker
While we like Patrick Queen and Payton Wilson, they aren't the impact players the higher-ranked units have on them. We don't expect to see both of them on the field often, which further limits the impact of this unit.
5 - Safety
Safety was an issue going into the offseason and it still is. The team added veteran Jaquan Brisker and rookie Robert Spears-Jennings who will be the Week One starters thanks to the injury to DeShon Elliott. We still expect Jalen Ramsey to end up playing some safety just to keep this until respectable.
This article originally appeared on Steelers Wire: Ranking the Steelers defensive positional units ahead of Week One vs the Falcons
