Will Steelers trade for Joe Schobert really make a difference?

The Steelers traded for a Middle Linebacker, but will it really make a difference this season? 

With the recent trade for Joe Schobert, I could not help but wonder how much of a difference the trade will really make this season.  I honestly hope it will make all the difference in the world, as it were.  Here’s what I mean by that:  I sincerely hope the Schobert ascends to a level similar to the best linebackers in Steelers history.

The reality of the trade may be something akin to applying a bandage on a laceration that requires surgery, but, again, I hope that is not the case. Let’s first recap what we know about the trade.  The Steelers are sending the Jacksonville Jaguars a 2022 sixth-round pick in exchange for Schobert.  Superficially, that sounds like a great deal, but you have to wonder why the ‘Jags’ were willing to trade for Schobert for only a sixth-round pick.

According to Pro-Football-Reference, Schobert has started 65 of the 77 games in which he has played since being drafted in 2016 by the Cleveland Browns.  Schobert played 4 seasons with the Browns and only season with the ‘Jags’, tallying 9 INTs, 11 sacks, 24 passes defended and accumulating 549 tackles along the way.

Schobert has also been named to the Pro Bowl once in his career which is one time more than any of our other ‘Middle Backers’, not including any of our sub-package LBs, of course.  So where does Schobert fall in the pecking order with the other ILBs?  I would assume Schobert may supplant Robert Spillane, who started 7 games for the Steelers in 2020.

Will the addition of Joe Schobert put the Steelers ‘over the top’ this season?

To me, the question I just posed, “Will the addition of Joe Schobert put the Steelers ‘over the top’ this season?” is a question that may not be answered until the Steelers 2021 season has concluded.  My hope is that conclusion has us hoisting another Lombardi Trophy and that Schobert was an integral part of our success, but can one player really make a difference?

As we know, football is the ultimate team sport and the Steelers play a style of defense that relies heavily on not only individual performance but, more importantly, collective performance.  If one player is out of position on any given call, it generally results in a big play.  Obviously, that is not always the case, but it does stand to reason that if we are in ‘Cover 1’, for example, which we like to call quite a bit, and someone does not hold up in coverage and the pass rush doesn’t get ‘home’, it could result in a big play for the opposing offense.

Will Schobert be asked to cover?  I’m sure he will be, depending on the formation we are in and on the play we ‘dial up’, but considering that in 2020, Schobert gave up pass completions at a rate of 74.2%, that may not be such a good idea.  It seems to me that Schobert’s forte is run defense.

I could be wrong and I hope I am.  For all of Schobert’s career, he has been in a base 4-3 scheme, so maybe the change to our base 3-4 scheme would be welcomed, but considering the Steelers run sub-package schemes the majority of the time, how much will Schobert play anyway?

Look, I realize that we all have questions to which we do not have answers at this point since the regular season has yet to commence. As I stated, I truly hope that the Steelers trade for Schobert will not only improve our defense but will be the catalyst for something we have not experienced since the end of the 2008 season, a Super Bowl victory.