Pittsburgh’s defensive performance against Cleveland proves Joey Porter Jr. played the Steelers’ brass like a fiddle amid trade
The Pittsburgh Steelers watched Deshaun Watson carve up their secondary all night, and the decisions that left Daylon Everett and Asante Samuel Jr. exposed were made long before kickoff.
The Pittsburgh Steelers fell 27-24 to the Browns on Thursday Night Football, and the final score only tells part of the story. The truth is, the way Pittsburgh lost, and the two parties most to blame, make this loss even more infuriating for Steelers fans.
The first party is the Steelers front office, more specifically general manager Omar Khan and everyone else making roster decisions in Pittsburgh. The second is the man calling plays on defense. Together, they left cornerbacks Daylen Everette and Asante Samuel Jr. getting picked apart by Deshaun Watson, KC Concepcion, and Denzel Boston. The results were ugly from start to finish.
Steelers front office traded its best corner via Joey Porter Jr.
So the immediate question becomes, why were Everette and Samuel the ones out there in the first place? Well, the lockdown No. 1 corner the Steelers drafted is now a Dallas Cowboy. Oh, and if the Steelers want to replace him? They have to wait until 2028 for a second-round pick.
To make matters worse, Joey Porter Jr. didn’t just decide he never wanted to play for Pittsburgh again. He wanted out so badly that he isn’t even worried about a contract this year.
In his introductory press conference with Dallas, Porter made it clear how he viewed his exit: he felt disrespected and undervalued by the Pittsburgh Steelers.
If you want to blame Porter, that is totally fine. However, the Steelers front office is not without blame in this scenario. Khan and company decided they could move on from a starting-caliber corner, and the replacements are getting picked on every single week.
On top of that, Porter has made a lot of people in Pittsburgh look foolish. He said he had a back injury, and now he appears to be just fine and could play this Sunday. He got exactly what he wanted by getting out of Pittsburgh after feeling disrespected, and made the Steelers look foolish along the way.
None of that is really here nor there, though. The bigger problem is that the Steelers defense can’t stop anybody right now.
Patrick Graham’s zone-heavy scheme has been Swiss cheese
That brings us to the second party at fault, defensive coordinator Patrick Graham.
For two weeks now, Graham has leaned on a soft, spot-drop zone defense. Cover 2, Cover 3, quarters, quarter-quarter-half, two-high shell, whatever you want to call it, it has been Swiss cheese. It has just been awful.
In fact, the only time the Steelers defense resembles a unit capable of stopping an opposing offense is when Graham dials up pressure. When Pittsburgh blitzes, plays Cover 1, or rolls out 2-man and 2-trap, the defense looks like itself again.
I don’t know what Graham is thinking or what wheel he is trying to reinvent here. The bottom line is, the Pittsburgh Steelers defense is not a zone defense. It never has been, and the personnel on the roster doesn’t suggest it should be one now.
Maybe that is why Graham, Steelers coach Mike McCarthy, and Khan thought they could trade away Porter. If you believe zone coverage is the answer, a press-man corner becomes easier to part with. So far, that logic hasn’t held up on the field.
Blame the play-caller more than the cornerbacks
To be fair to Everette and Samuel, I don’t blame them nearly as much as I blame the person making the play calls. They are being asked to do a job that doesn’t fit what this defense does best.
At some point, if Watson is out here picking apart your defense like Dan Marino, you have to think long and hard about the scheme you have. You have to look at the plays you are calling and, more importantly, the personnel you are using. Right now, those three things don’t line up in Pittsburgh.
Deshaun Watson stats vs. Steelers
- 24/33 passing
- 268 yards passing
- 1 TD/1 INT
The way I see it, this Steelers defense is not good at all, and it comes down to two main reasons: the front office and Graham.
