Defensive line was one of the biggest needs on the Pittsburgh Steelers’ roster last offseason, and they made quite a few moves to address it. The biggest was Derrick Harmon, selected with the 21st overall pick in the 2026 NFL Draft. Unfortunately for the Steelers, he’ll be out this week against the Buffalo Bills, according to Mike Tomlin. That will give extra opportunity for another of their new additions, fifth-round pick Yahya Black.
As is common for most fifth-round selections, Black hasn’t gotten a ton of playing time this season. However, with a chance for a bigger role against the Bills and their vaunted rushing attack, Tomlin isn’t worrying about the rookie.
“Really encouraged by his growth, man. I think his play time is kind of reflective of that,” Tomlin said Tuesday during his weekly press conference via the Steelers’ YouTube channel.
The lack of playing time has been real for Black, although he should get a bump this week. He’s played in all 11 games, but only has 224 snaps this season, just 29 percent of the team’s total.
Yet he’s been good when on the field. Against Chicago last week, he had the Steelers’ highest Pro Football Focus grade at 91.7. The next highest was RG Mason McCormick with an 88.9 overall grade, and the next best defender was Brandin Echols, nearly 20 points behind at 73.1.
A large part of that grade probably came from this play, in which Black ripped the ball out of D’Andre Swift’s hands in the middle of a pile. Black was credited with both a forced fumble and a fumble recovery, each of which are the first of his career.
He’s not filling up the stat sheet, with that play above and 11 total tackles being his only notable metrics from his rookie season so far. But in general, Black does look more confident as the season progresses. With the Steelers keeping him at nose tackle more often recently, he’s been able to plug up the middle of the field as a run stopper. He’s getting smarter in the passing game as well, especially when it comes to getting his hands in passing lanes. The production isn’t there on the stat sheet yet. But it looks like the game is starting to slow down for him.
With Harmon out, it won’t just be Black needing to make an impact. And Tomlin feels good about the rest of the depth the Steelers have on the interior.
“We like our young d-linemen. And we’ve acquired a new one,” Tomlin said in reference to Brodric Martin-Rhodes. “One man’s misfortune is another men’s opportunity. And so we’re encouraged by the depth we have at the position. We’ll take the collective through the week, and we’ll see who can execute detail, and I’m sure it will be more than one person. It often is when we talk about losing somebody of that starting caliber [Harmon].”
Against Josh Allen and James Cook, the Steelers have their work cut out for them this week. They’ll need Black and the rest of the defensive line to step up with Harmon out.
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