The Pittsburgh Steelers made major improvements to their roster this offseason, shaping the defense into the vision that new defensive coordinator Patrick Graham has from a personnel perspective. They also upgraded their offense, give first-year head coach and offensive guru Mike McCarthy more weapons to work with.
Top to bottom, the Steelers’ roster looks much improved compared to the team that walked off the field last season following a blowout Wild Card loss to the Houston Texans.
There is one position that remains a concern though, one that they looked long and hard at leading up to the 2026 NFL Draft but never addressed: inside linebacker.
For the Post-Gazette’s Ray Fittipaldo, who appeared on 93.7 The Fan’s Morning Show Wednesday, it’s the one area on the roster that has real question marks.
“It kind of sounds weird to say because Patrick Queen is making like 17 million a year, but yeah, it’s a group that there’s some talent there, but there’s always something that seems to go awry,” Fittipaldo said of the Steelers’ inside linebackers. “Like last year was with Patrick, it was the missed tackles. Last year with Payton Wilson, very productive in some ways, including turnovers, but wasn’t able to really hold up against the run early. So they had to go to a different plan. Malik Harrison is who he is. He’s a downhill guy. [Cole] Holcomb is, I still think he’s a serviceable player, but he’s nothing close to what he was pre-injury. He’s still, I think, very much coming back from that.
“I think it’s a solid group, but when you compare it to the other aspects of their defense, the d-line, certainly the outside linebackers, I would tend to agree with you that there are probably more question marks there than any other position on defense.”
While Queen plays nearly every single defensive snap, he had a rough 2025 season. Based on charting here at Steelers Depot, Queen missed 28 tackles last season, generating a 17.8% missed tackles rate. He played through some injuries, and it hindered his ability on the field.
He wasn’t the only issue at the position last season. Wilson took a step backwards, struggling mightily against the run. He couldn’t get off blocks and wasn’t able to utilize his athleticism in space against the run to make him effective. Holcomb eventually took some snaps from him, but he wasn’t much better. Same with Harrison, who was a profound disappointment in Year 1 in Pittsburgh.
Those struggles at inside linebacker led the Steelers to do a ton of homework on some of the top inside linebackers in the 2026 NFL Draft class, but they ultimately didn’t dip into the position. Now, Queen is entering the final year of his deal and is likely gone after 2026, while Wilson needs to take a big step forward.
If not, the position could undergo a significant makeover next offseason.
The talent is there for 2026, but the questions are big and there isn’t much faith from the outside looking in that the group will improve.
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