Patrick Graham
Patrick Graham
Watching the Pittsburgh Steelers defense in 2026 should be a far different experience than it was in 2025. Mike Tomlin and Teryl Austin are gone, and Patrick Graham brings some fresh new ideas to the unit.
Those fresh ideas include rethinking how the Steelers bring pressure and disguise things on the backend.
Graham will be working with more talent than he’s ever had in Pittsburgh. But he’s still keeping some of his ideas from his previous stops, including his philosophy about bringing pressure.
“To me, however you do it in terms of run pressure, you’re trying to get to five-down spacing from off the ball… Once we get to pressures that are geared for the pass, a lot of times you’re trying to be right. Meaning you’re scheming it up for a free runner, or a one-on-one, like a designed one-on-one,” Graham said Saturday via Steelers.com. “I like our matchups one-on-one.”
Graham didn’t have a ton of talent to work with in Las Vegas. As a result, he had to get flexible. Take a look at this pressure from his time with the Raiders last year. This is what Patrick Graham is talking about when he wants to force one-on-one matchups.
-Both LBs blitz & Chinn has the peel on RB
-DTs pinch toward C to draw the Gs inside
-Both EDGEs win to collapse the pocket
-Crosby fights thru the chip & finishes with the sack#RaiderNation pic.twitter.com/ExjGiV77uO
The two interior defensive linemen stunt toward the middle, which occupies both guards and the center at first. The linebackers, No. 52 and 45, each go for the B-gap. This forces the right guard to pivot and take the linebacker, and the running back has to pick up the other blitzer, while No. 11 shows blitz before bailing to take away the checkdown. All of this forces one-on-one matchups on the edge, and Maxx Crosby ends up getting in the backfield for the sack.
Another thing to notice is the number of bodies near the line of scrimmage, including a safety in Jeremy Chinn. Moving safeties around isn’t something Graham is afraid to do.
“In terms of split safety, post safety, split safety just gives you ability to disguise some. You could disguise some from the post safety as well. I would say, today’s quarterbacks, when it’s split safety, you can disguise what the weak safety’s doing,” Graham said.
Although they changed things up at times last year, the Steelers have ran plenty of one-high coverage. Graham likes the ability to disguise from two-high looks more, and he makes some good points. As Graham mentions, the weak safety and nickel defender are often times the first directions a quarterback will look post snap.
At those spots, the Steelers have a lot of options. At safety, Jaquan Brisker and DeShon Elliott will get plenty of run. Jalen Ramsey makes a lot of sense at nickel, but should spend some time at safety as well. Brandin Echols also had some nice moments at nickel last year, and is in the running this year. At the end of the day, Patrick Graham has a lot of chess pieces to work with. He sounds confident in how he’ll use them.