In 2025, the Pittsburgh Steelers allowed too many third-down conversions to opposing offenses. Today I look at and provide data on this, including new defensive coordinator Patrick Graham’s track record.
Here is a visual of third-down conversions allowed by NFL defenses the last two seasons. The 2025 numbers are on the X-axis, with 2024 results on the Y-axis:
We can see Pittsburgh was quite good at preventing third-down conversions in 2024 at 35.3 percent, second best in the NFL. They followed it up by allowing a 41.5-percent third-down conversion rate that ranked 25th last year.
That is a concerning drop-off that had a very negative ripple effect for the Steelers defense in 2025. Namely an inability to get off the field with the Steelers facing the second most plays of any defense last year. This, of course, tuckered out the unit and obviously limited the offense’s opportunities, capping the team’s potential.
Clearly the hope is to rectify this for 2026. This got me curious about how Graham has fared in his stops as a defensive coordinator.
In all seven seasons Patrick Graham was a defensive coordinator (prior to Pittsburgh), his units never had an above-average third-down conversion rate:
2025 Raiders: 46.3 percent (30th)
2024 Raiders: 39.8 percent (17th)
2023 Raiders: 41.4 percent (27th)
2022 Raiders: 41.7 percent (26th)
2021 Giants: 39.8 percent (16th)
2020 Giants: 44.6 percent (24th)
2019 Dolphins: 41.8 percent (24th)
Two of his seven defenses landed around average, most recently the 2024 Raiders along with the 2021 Giants. The other five ranked 24th or worse, mirroring the same issues the 2025 Steelers had. On top of that, last season was even worse than Pittsburgh and third-worst in the NFL.
While history is just that, the numbers paint a pretty bleak picture. In the same span (2019-2025), Pittsburgh’s defense ranked top 10 four of seven seasons. Since 2022, though, it only happened once (2024).
It’s only one aspect of play, albeit a big one, and Graham has had successful defenses in other statistical metrics. One could argue the 2026 Steelers are his best unit on paper as a defensive coordinator. In my opinion, third-down defense should be one of the biggest things on the radar for improvement for Graham and Pittsburgh. It could go a long way to fixing many key issues for the Steel City in 2026.
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