4 of the most overrated moves from the Steelers offseason

Did Steelers upgrade with Cole Holcomb

What is becoming an unfortunate trend for the Steelers, they are once again reimagining the linebacker room. The combination of Devin Bush and Myles Jack was abysmal last year, keeping up the yearly tradition of signing a mid-tier free agent to revamp this room.

Cole Holcomb is the newest face, and while he has some good tape, I’m not overly thrilled with this signing. Holcomb has been a fine run-defending linebacker with good athleticism, and while he isn’t horrible in coverage, he isn’t elite there either. The Steelers seem content on using him in that role though, and they are paying him with that expectation.

While his contract is a little higher than I thought it should be and he is a mixed bag as a player, my real complaint is that the linebacker room was depressed this offseason. Top names earned in line with what Holcomb got, and they are clearly better players with fewer question marks.

My main target would have been T.J. Edwards, as he has proven to be a better player with better health over his time with the Eagles. He was viewed as one of the top linebackers in the offseason by only signed for about 500 thousand more dollars a season than Holcomb.

I have little doubt that Holcomb will provide a more stable presence for this defense. Frankly, it would be harder to be worse. The issue is that I’m not confident it will be enough, and there were better players available at similar price ranges. This team should have been more aggressive in landing a true upgrade as opposed to settling for Holcomb.