Exit Meeting: OLB Jack Sawyer
Experience: 1 Year
All told, it was a successful rookie season for Jack Sawyer, who played some good snaps and surely learned plenty. With T.J. Watt, Alex Highsmith, and Nick Herbig as his teacher peers, he had plenty to work with. And sometimes opportunities presented themselves to allow him hands-on experience. When he had those opportunities, he passed the test.
A fourth-round pick in the 2025 NFL Draft, Jack Sawyer represented good value in the Steelers’ eyes. While they didn’t have a screaming need for another edge rusher, he was too good to pass up by then. And I don’t recall ever a team complaining about having too many pass rushers.
Sawyer played in all 17 games last season, starting one. Late in the season, Watt suffered a partially collapse lung in a bizarre gardening accident freak occurrence during a dry-needling treatment at the team’s facility. In the meantime, Herbig also suffered a minor injury, forcing the rookie to step up.
He did, registering five tackles against the Lions and help setting a dominant tone against one of the NFL’s best rushing offenses. Detroit couldn’t get anything going on the ground, and Sawyer kept things going smoothly.
In all, Jack Sawyer logged 294 defensive snaps, and he added another 340 on special teams. Combined, he recorded 36 tackles, including 3 for loss, with 1 sack, 2 interceptions, and 4 passes defensed. Friendly bounces or not, he found his way around the ball and made things happen. The rookie added another sack and forced fumble in the Steelers’ Wild Card Round playoff loss to the Texans.
With Sawyer’s success his rookie year, what is the front office thinking? T.J. Watt is aging, and the Steelers still have Alex Highsmith and Nick Herbig. The latter is due for a contract extension, but in what role? And on what timeline do they have to make a decision? If they think Sawyer can be the new Herbig as a premium rotational quasi-starter, they could afford to make a move. Or they may have to if they want to keep Herbig around beyond this season.
The Pittsburgh Steelers find themselves licking their wounds after yetanother early playoff exit. This is a repeated pattern for the organization, but with major change coming. As the Steelers conduct their own exit meetings, we willgo down the roster conducting our own. Who should stay, and who should go, and how? Who should expect a bigger role next season, and who might deserve a new contract? The resignation of Mike Tomlin makes those questions much more difficult to answer, but much more important. We’ll explore those questions and more in these articles, part of an annual series.
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