Alex Highsmith
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Pittsburgh Steelers edge rusher Alex Highsmith told Barstool's Jon Gruden the team's defense was far too inconsistent during the 2026 NFL season.
There was a lot of hype around the Pittsburgh Steelers defense entering 2025. Players and coaches, including Mike Tomlin, threw around the word, “historic” when discussing what the unit could be.
Obviously, it wasn’t. If anything, it was historically bad. The Steelers finished 26th in yards allowed, which was their lowest overall defensive ranking since 1988.
But edge rusher Alex Highsmith is holding onto hope the Steelers defense can be “historic” (in the good way) in 2026. One thing has to be much different, though, according to the veteran — the defense’s consistency.
“There’s some games that we absolutely dominated, and there’s some games we played like a bottom-of-the-league defense,” Highsmith told Jon Gruden on his Barstool show, via Steelers Depot’s Matthew Marczi. “We just weren’t consistent enough.
“I feel like we do have the players to be an elite defense, a legendary defense. We’ve just got to put it all together.
“It just starts with in practice, communication, details and whatnot.”
One could argue Highsmith actually put his teammates on notice in two different ways with those comments. First, he hyped his unit again as a potentially “legendary” defense. But only if the Steelers defenders all put in the work and grow together because last year wasn’t good enough.
In addition to 26th in yards allowed, the Steelers were 17th in points allowed during 2025. Pittsburgh’s defense was 29th against the pass and 13th versus the run.
The Steelers excelled the most at taking the ball away. They finished fourth in takeaways during 2025.