Elandon Roberts
Elandon Roberts
Inside linebacker was arguably the Pittsburgh Steelers’ weakest position going into training camp. It got a little stronger this week when the Steelers added an old friend in Elandon Roberts.
Joining the team on a one-year deal, Roberts brings physicality and quality run defense to Pittsburgh. He also brings an expertise in Patrick Graham’s defense after playing for Graham last year in Las Vegas.
“PG, man, very smart, always gonna put us in the right situation,” Roberts said Saturday via Steelers.com. “He’s just a football nerd. He knows the history of the game…He’s able to soak in so much knowledge to where he can make it come to light.”
Graham is certainly a detail-oriented coach, a trait that isn’t hard to come by on Mike McCarthy’s staff. Roberts played under him for the first time in 2025 and had a solid season. He wasn’t great against the pass, allowing completions on 17 of the 22 passes thrown his way. But he stayed healthy, playing all 17 games and starting 16 of them, and had 90 tackles, including and six for a loss.
Run defense is the biggest thing the Steelers will be looking for from Roberts. It certainly would have been on Graham’s mind when talking to McCarthy about bringing him in. And Roberts likes the way Graham allows his linebackers to play against the run.
“He was d-line at heart. The d-line, he’s big into that gritty, obviously he want them guys to make plays, but he’s like ‘Hey, I don’t want my backers to get touched’,” Elandon Roberts said. “It frees up the linebackers.”
Whether Patrick Queen, Payton Wilson, or anyone else, the Steelers’ inside linebackers haven’t been consistent enough against the run. That branched out from simply missing tackles to missed assignments and, at times, a total lack of gap discipline. Roberts is capable of rectifying some of that. He had 147 total tackles during his two years in Pittsburgh and missed just 10 missed tackles during that span.
He thinks having some talented teammates along the defensive line will help.
“Man, you see them big old boys up front?” Roberts said. “Hat off to upstairs, getting that d-line constructed the way it is.”
Another reason to be optimistic about the Steelers’ run defense is the depth they have up front. Some pillars from Roberts’ previous time in Pittsburgh are still there, like Cam Heyward, T.J. Watt, Alex Highsmith and newly extended Keeanu Benton. He’s also got some promising youngsters in front of him in Derrick Harmon and Yahya Black. Even beyond those players, we saw some impressive performances on Thursday night from the rest of the group. The future is looking bright up front in Pittsburgh.
That will help Elandon Roberts and the rest of the inside linebacker room. It remains to be seen where he’ll fall on the depth chart, but Roberts is a low-risk signing, which could yield some benefits down the road. He’s already feeling comfortable back in Pittsburgh.