One of the benefits that can come out of disappointing season from the Pittsburgh Steelers last season is seeing how their young players improved throughout the year. Pro Football Focus recently released some very interesting data.
As you know, PFF uses their own grading scale to score NFL players, and some notable Steelers were the beneficiary of this last year. There were three key defensive players who improved exponentially in the back half of the 2018 season:
Notable second-half improvements in overall grade on the #Steelers defense:
— PFF PIT Steelers (@PFF_Steelers) May 14, 2019
T.J. Watt
1-9: 60.8
10-17: 87.7
Javon Hargrave
1-9: 69.1
10-17: 86.2
Terrell Edmunds
1-9: 54.9
10-17: 71.6
All grades available with PFF Elite: https://t.co/l3pIHtzwv9
According to Pro Football Focus Steelers, these three young defensive players made significant leaps in the second half of the season. Let’s take a look at each one:
T.J. Watt, EDGE
T.J. Watt is, without a doubt, one of the single most important players to the Pittsburgh Steelers franchise. The edge rusher position is something that every team covets, and there are only a handful of elite pass rushers throughout the league.
We knew T.J. Watt was going to be solid (at the least) with a good rookie season, but in the second half of his sophomore campaign, Watt exploded from week 10 on with a 87.7 overall grade. An article from Pro Football Focus helped shed more light on just how good he was down the stretch. Here’s what they had to say:
"No edge defender won at a higher rate as a pass-rusher than Watt in Weeks 13-16, as he led his peers in pass-rush win rate (26.9) after recording just a 12.4 pass-rush win rate in his first 11 games of the year. Even though he’s logged just two sacks in the span, Watt has earned the fifth-highest pass-rush grade (85.8) among the 47 edge defenders with 100-plus pass-rush snaps in the last four weeks."
Watt was more than impressive during this stretch. If he can keep up the pace heading into 2019 and beyond, Watt will have a chance to be one of the best edge defenders in the league for a long time.
Javon Hargrave – DT
Javon Hargrave has always been considered good value as a former 2016 3rd round pick, but now he has a chance to elevate himself above his draft status. Hargrave improved his overall grade from 69.1 to 86.2 in the second half of the season.
The ‘big three’ defensive lineman for the Steelers (Cam Heyward, Stephon Tuitt, and Javon Hargrave) all scored in the 80’s for PFF. In terms of pure pass rushing ability, Hargrave is the best on the defensive line. The Steelers struck gold with the small school DT, and he could just be scratching the surface of his potential.
Terrell Edmunds – SS
Fans were scratching their heads after Terrell Edmunds was announced as the Steelers 1st round pick in 2018. Many draft analysts had Edmunds pegged as a 3rd round prospect entering the NFL Draft, and the Virginia Tech product played like a rookie 3rd rounder to begin the season.
In the second half of 2018, however, Edmunds showed much more promise. Edmunds improved his score from a miserable 54.9 to a very respectable 71.6. That’s a big transition for a 21-year old rookie. Edmunds is still far from being called a great pick by the Steelers, but will have a chance to continue the trend in the right direction with a solid 2019 season.
Not all of the Steelers high draft choices have panned out in recent years. We know that players like Artie Burns, Jarvis Jones, and Senquez Golson are names we would like to forget; while others like Bud Dupree and Sean Davis aren’t exactly home runs for the Steelers. However, this young trio of defenders gives us hope that the Steelers’ defense can thrive again.