The Pittsburgh Steelers have quietly engineered a significant defensive transformation midway through their season, shifting from their traditional single-high safety scheme to a two-high safety look that has yielded immediate results. This strategic overhaul, implemented following early-season defensive struggles, now faces its stiffest test against the Chicago Bears’ potent rushing offense.
“They have flipped mid-season from a single high defense to a two high defense,” noted Steelers analyst Nick Farabaugh on the latest episode of the Steelers Breakdown podcast. “That’s what we call good defensive coordinating like good job Teryl Austin and Mike Tomlin because we’ve ripped them on this podcast basically all year.”
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The shift represents a significant departure from the Steelers’ defensive identity in recent years, which had predominantly featured single-high safety looks with Cover 3 and Cover 1 man-to-man coverages. According to Farabaugh, the team ran split-safety looks on 72% of defensive snaps in their recent victory against Cincinnati—reportedly their highest percentage in eight years.
This transformation has been facilitated by two key personnel additions: safety Kyle Dugger, acquired shortly before the trade deadline, and the versatile Jalen Ramsey, who has been deployed similarly to Minkah Fitzpatrick when he first joined the team from Miami.
“That whole safety position, the two safety positions has just totally been reinvented mid-season with Dugger’s addition and certainly what Ramsey’s doing back there,” explained John Luciew, co-host of the Steelers Breakdown podcast.
The results have been notable, particularly in run defense, where the Steelers had previously been vulnerable to explosive plays. Early in the season, opponents like Breece Hall and Kenneth Walker routinely broke off runs of 15-25 yards or more against Pittsburgh’s defense.
“The bad runs the Steelers are allowing are like 8, 9, 10 yards. You can live with that. You can’t live with 35, 40 yards,” Farabaugh said. “And that’s a big difference because both [Dugger and Ramsey] are great tacklers in space.”
The improved communication between defenders has also reduced coverage busts, despite an unusual interception against Cincinnati where cornerback Joey Porter Jr. and Dugger appeared to play different coverages, resulting in a turnover.
While the schematic changes have shown promise, the Steelers’ defense will face a significant challenge this Sunday in Chicago. The Bears boast the NFL’s second-ranked rushing offense in yards per game, presenting a test similar to what Pittsburgh faced against Indianapolis earlier this season.
“This Bears rushing offense, second in the league in yards per game... This is very similar to the Colts game. The Steelers were able to hold up in that game,” Farabaugh noted.
Beyond Chicago, the next three games represent a crucial stretch for validating the effectiveness of Pittsburgh’s defensive adjustments, as they face “three punishing run offenses” in the Bears, Bills, and Ravens.
“If they can hold up in these three games against the run, feel like they can do it against anybody because they probably can because this is going to be a really big test for that,” Farabaugh said.
The Steelers have implemented other strategic adjustments to complement their safety alignment changes. Rather than showing single-high looks pre-snap, they’ve frequently aligned with split safeties before rotating post-snap. Additionally, the safeties are often positioned just 10 yards off the line of scrimmage, allowing them to react more quickly to both run and pass plays.
These changes have coincided with strong play from unexpected sources, including cornerback James Pierre, though head coach Mike Tomlin has indicated Darius Slay will return to the starting lineup despite Pierre’s impressive performance.
As Pittsburgh prepares for Sunday’s matchup in Chicago—where they reportedly haven’t won since 1995—the effectiveness of their defensive reinvention against a powerful rushing attack will provide valuable insight into whether this mid-season transformation can sustain long-term success.
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