For years, Mike Tomlin preached the importance of winning the weighty downs. In 2025, that was an area where the Pittsburgh Steelers’ defense consistently came up short. What should have been a strength on third-and-long—with one of the NFL’s highest-paid pass-rushing tandems—instead became a glaring weakness that contributed to the unit’s disappointing season.
The numbers paint a troubling picture. On third-and-10 or longer, the Steelers allowed opponents to convert 14.3 percent of the time, the 12th-worst mark in the NFL.
For perspective, seven teams held opponents below a 10-percent conversion rate in those situations, while the league’s best defense allowed conversions at less than half of Pittsburgh’s rate. Over the course of a season, that difference translates to roughly eight extra drives kept alive. In a sport often decided by a play or two, that’s significant.
More importantly, those extra opportunities the Steelers afforded opponents frequently turned into points.
Seven of the unlikely conversions directly put points on the board against the Steelers. Would-be punts turned into long scoring drives five times. And would-be field goals into touchdowns twice. That’s 39 extra points directly stemming from the defense’s third-and-long issue.
Remember this disaster on 3rd and goal from the 19 against the Seattle Seahawks?
Even when those conversions didn’t directly lead to points, they were a major contributor to losing the field-position and time-of-possession battles. It was a hidden toll imposed on the offense as well.
While it wasn’t technically true, it often felt like the Steelers had better success defending 3rd and 3 than they did 3rd and 15. The difference in those conversion rates were nowhere near as wide as they should have been.
So what led to those third-down issues? The most obvious culprit was a pass rush that simply didn’t get home often enough. T.J. Watt, Alex Highsmith, and Nick Herbig combined for 24 sacks. Watt had 22.5 alone in his 2021 NFL Defensive Player of the Year season. Pittsburgh’s defense was designed for those guys to make plays, and they didn’t happen often enough.
It’s also fair to say that Pittsburgh suffered from communication issues over the last few seasons. A lack of continuity in the back half and frequent injuries placed a strain on pre-snap communication. There was also a talent deficit at times in the secondary, especially when Juan Thornhill, Darius Slay, and Chuck Clark were playing significant snaps. Two of those players didn’t last the full season with the team.
There’s reason for optimism that this issue will drastically improve in 2026. For one, the safety position is in a much better place this season. DeShon Elliott’s injury was significant in 2025. Getting him back and adding key depth in Jaquan Brisker will help with communication in the secondary and with keeping a lid on deep plays in general.
Expectations for the pass rush are also increased this year after Herbig received a $100 million extension. New DC Patrick Graham plans on using some wrinkles in his defense to feature all three talented pass rushers as often as possible. Where he can get most creative is on third and 10 or longer, where Pittsburgh had issues last season.
Fixing this one issue would have made the Steelers a top-10 scoring defense last season. Getting the highest-paid defense back to an acceptable level of performance isn’t as far off as it may seem.
Recommended for you