Pittsburgh Steelers: Jon Bostic proving his worth

Despite fans being displeased with the signing in the off-season, Jon Bostic continues to prove his worth on the defensive side of the ball for the Pittsburgh Steelers.

There is no replacing a man like Ryan Shazier. From his attributes on the field to the leadership he provides in the locker room, Shazier is still missed on the Pittsburgh Steelers defense to this day.

With Shazier’s future in football highly questionable, the Steelers took to free agency to help fill the void in the middle of the defense by signing Jon Bostic to a 2 year, $4 million contract.

Pittsburgh got a proven veteran to at the bare minimum, buy them more time to seek better options at the position. Yet finding Steelers fans who were pleased with the signing proved to be difficult, at least on social media.

In all fairness, the questions surrounding Bostic were somewhat valid. Bringing in a 27-year-old linebacker to play in a defense that requires linebackers to play in pass coverage a lot doesn’t exactly strike the crowds as pleasing. Yet in all fairness, we weren’t being fair to Bostic, either.

When training camp rolled around, fellow inside linebacker Tyler Matakevich was listed as the starter over Bostic on the team’s initial depth chart. Perhaps the team was playing to Matakevich’s favor due to familiarity with the system, but nonetheless, Bostic found himself as back-up with something to prove.

As preseason games rolled around and began play, it was clear Bostic was better suited for the starting job next to Vince Williams. By the last week of the preseason, Bostic firmly had the starting job in his grasp.

Fast forward six games through the NFL season: Bostic leads the team in tackles (37) and has added 2.5 sacks to his resume while starting every game thus far. According to Pro Football Focus, Bostic has yet to miss a tackle in 2018 and ranks fourth among all off-ball linebackers in run defense grades. Jon isn’t quite the athlete Shazier is, or quite the vocal leader Williams is, but he’s stepped up when the defense has needed him to.

"“It was always going to be hard to replace someone like that because of the story, but at the end of the day, he’s been doing a great job filling in that role,” defensive end Stephon Tuitt told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette on Bostic replacing Shazier"

The Steelers certainly have a long way to go if they plan on being the Super Bowl caliber team we all pinned them to be, and Bostic is no exception. His pass coverage can use some work, and at times he’s susceptible to filling the wrong gaps. Yet the criticism Bostic still receives from the fan base is unwarranted.

The future at the inside linebacker position is still unknown. We all thought the position would be addressed in the 2018 NFL Draft, yet the Steelers didn’t use a single draft selection at the spot. The only thing we can do until the off-season is evaluate the position by the week, and thus far, Bostic has done nothing but prove he belongs in a Pittsburgh Steelers uniform.