T.J. Watt is currently the most notorious Pittsburgh Steelers pass rusher, but he can’t do everything by himself. The Steelers defense contains several productive players. That includes Watt’s bash brother, Alex Highsmith. The Steelers drafted Highsmith in the third round in 2020, and he’s been a solid player on the opposite side of Watt. Unfortunately, 2024 wasn’t his best year, being plagued by injuries. This offseason, Highsmith worked to make sure that doesn’t happen again.
“I missed six games last year,” Highsmith said recently on The Irish Steelers Podcast. “Had a groin and an ankle. And so, it was definitely frustrating. But I just kept pushing, kept grinding, kept believing. So, whenever I came back, I felt like I finished the season strong when I was back in at the end of the season.
“For me, I’ve done a lot of things to make sure that those things all happen again,” Highsmith continued. “Done a lot of strengthening, specifically that groin area. And then, done a lot of ankle mobility and rehab this year to make sure that that’s back to where it needs to be, especially for my position, what I do, bending around the edge. I’m excited for how I’m going to be able to bounce back this year.”
Last year wasn’t Highsmith’s first time dealing with a groin injury. That issue has followed him throughout his NFL career. In 2021, he missed one game due to a groin injury. Then during training camp last year, he missed time because of that same problem, and it flared up during the season as well.
Unfortunately, while Highsmith tried to be proactive to prevent his groin from giving him problems again, it didn’t work perfectly. During the middle of training camp this year, Highsmith once again suffered a groin injury. That’s led to him missing several practices.
Hopefully, Highsmith’s work will help the injury not pop back up during the season. It caused him to miss three games last year. Additionally, he missed three other games due to an ankle injury, which he also worked to try to prevent from happening again.
Highsmith is a veteran going into his sixth season, so there isn’t too much concern about him missing time during training camp. At the moment, it’s unclear how much more time Highsmith will miss. Soft tissue injuries can linger if they aren’t allowed to heal properly.
Therefore, it’s probably best for the Steelers to exercise caution with Highsmith. They don’t want this groin problem dragging into the regular season. While they have solid depth at outside linebacker, Highsmith isn’t easily replaced. We’ll see if he can make it back in time to suit up for a preseason game. That would be nice to let him knock off some of the rust from the offseason.
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