The Pittsburgh Steelers are coming off one of the lousiest preseason performances in recent memory. Against the New York Jets on Friday night in the second week of exhibition action, the Steelers were shut out for the first time in over a decade. Now some fans are already hitting the panic button.
It's true that the team, as a whole, underwhelmed in Week 2 of the preseason. Offensively, the Steelers struggled to create running lanes, and the passing game was stagnant. Meanwhile, the defense surrendered 24 completions on 31 pass attempts for 226 and two touchdowns as the Jets' four quarterbacks combined for a 120.2 passer rating, per ESPN stats.
But the performances of Steelers pass-rush stars Alex Highsmith and Nick Herbig are a perfect example of why we are reading too much into preseason performances.
Pittsburgh Steelers pass rush stars have struggled in the preseason... and it doesn't matter
Against the Jets, Alex Highsmith was a complete non-factor. On 14 defensive snaps, the starting outside linebacker failed to record one assisted tackle while surrendering 13 yards and a touchdown in coverage and failing to record a pressure. Highsmith was part of the starting defense that allowed QB Geno Smith to march his team down the field on the opening drive for an effortless touchdown.
As a result of Highsmith's underwhelming (and essentially non-existent) performance, the veteran edge rusher earned a dismal 32.7 overall grade from Pro Football Focus, the worst on the team—offense or defense ($).
Through the Steelers' first two preseason games, Highsmith has recorded an overall grade of 43.7, with a pass rush grade of just 50.1. Likewise, fellow pass rusher Nick Herbig—who recently broke the bank with a massive contract extension—has just a 68.3 overall PFF grade in the preseason.
So why aren't we concerned? Because we know these players are better than their preseason performances.
The Steelers have one of the strongest edge rusher trios in the league, and Highsmith and Herbig make up two-thirds of that. The setting is simply different in the preseason. Though these two Steelers stars are playing against a mixture of opposing starters and backups, Patrick Graham is calling a straightforward, vanilla defense.
We're also talking about a small sample size of play. Highsmith has just 24 preseason snaps under his belt through two games, while Herbig has 28 defensive snaps.
We can apply the same logic to other players on the team. Jamel Dean—who was one of the most efficient cornerbacks in the league for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers last season—has also had a poor preseason performance so far.
And does anyone really believe that Zach Frazier is bad? He had a 46.7 PFF grade last preseason before earning just a 63.6 grade so far during exhibition action this year.
The point is, preseason performances can be overblown. In the same way, strong preseason performances don't guarantee a player's success when it matters. Take Kenny Pickett, for example. Pickett recorded a spectacular 94.7 overall PFF grade after a perfect 158.3 passer rating in the 2023 preseason, but his performance during the season was so underwhelming that he was traded one offseason later.
I think it's important not to read too deeply into any individual preseason performance. Sure, we want to see the Pittsburgh Steelers perform well—both individually and as a collective. But just as we know that Alex Highsmith and Nick Herbig are better than their preseason performances, we have hope that the rest of the team will be too.
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