{"id":240162,"date":"2026-07-10T12:51:25","date_gmt":"2026-07-10T12:51:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/240162\/"},"modified":"2026-07-10T12:51:25","modified_gmt":"2026-07-10T12:51:25","slug":"former-ohio-state-captain-could-be-steelers-next-star","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/240162\/","title":{"rendered":"Former Ohio State Captain Could Be Steelers Next Star"},"content":{"rendered":"

In what’s one of the most crowded and talented EDGE rusher rooms around the NFL, the Pittsburgh Steelers<\/a> may have a dark horse that’s ready to emerge and become a real impact player.<\/p>\n

While profiling the Steelers<\/a> and their Super Bowl LXI road map, Sports Illustrated’s Gilberto Manzano tabbed Jack Sawyer as their breakout player candidate.<\/p>\n

\u201cHerbig raved about Sawyer while speaking with [Cam} Heyward on his podcast. This is certainly a bold prediction because Sawyer, the 2025 fourth-round pick, has to fight for snaps playing with Watt, Herbig and Highsmith, and he only generated one sack while playing 25% of the defensive snaps as a rookie. But Sawyer\u2019s high motor was noticeable in college (he won a national title at Ohio State) and, clearly, the Steelers have a track record of developing edge rushers,\u201d Manzano wrote. \u201cIf Sawyer shows improvement and with Herbig paid, perhaps the Steelers would consider moving a player from the potential logjam at edge rusher.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Pittsburgh<\/p>\n

Oct 26, 2025; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA; Pittsburgh Steelers linebacker Jack Sawyer (33) looks on against the Green Bay Packers during the second quarter at Acrisure Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Charles LeClaire-Imagn Images | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect<\/p>\n

Is a Huge Season On The Horizon for Sawyer?<\/p>\n

As Manzano laid out, the fact that Sawyer is battling for snaps while being firmly behind Watt, Herbig and Highsmith<\/a> on the depth chart.<\/p>\n

Given he’s the clear fourth option off the edge, Sawyer isn’t going to see the field with much regularity. He played 25 percent of the Steelers’ defensive snaps as a rookie in 2025, and that was with the trio of Watt, Highsmith and Herbig missing a combined nine regular season games.<\/p>\n

Sawyer emerged as a key piece on Pittsburgh’s special teams units last year, playing 76 percent of the snaps, and that should remain the case in 2026.<\/p>\n

As far as a defensive breakout is concerned, however, it’ll be tough for the 24-year-old to make much of a splash barring any major injuries.<\/p>\n

Beyond a lack of snaps available at EDGE rusher, Sawyer simply doesn’t have a super high ceiling as a pass rusher. He lacks explosiveness, twitch and a deep pass rush arsenal, which may prevent him from ever become a difference-maker at the position.<\/p>\n

His 10.2 percent pass rush win rate (per Pro Football Focus<\/a>) left a lot to be desired. At the same time, Sawyer’s motor and strength can still help him win reps and get after the quarterback on occasion as a higher-floor backup. His run defense is a hallmark of his game because of those same qualities.<\/p>\n

Expecting Sawyer to grow into another quality pass rusher for Pittsburgh isn’t necessarily realistic, but he’s still a valuable player for Pittsburgh in multiple aspects of the game.<\/p>\n

Make sure to bookmark Steelers On SI,\u00a0and find our podcast All Steelers Talk on YouTube\u00a0or anywhere you listen!<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"Add us as a preferred source on GoogleFollow<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In what’s one of the most crowded and talented EDGE rusher rooms around the NFL, the Pittsburgh Steelers…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":240163,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[73,75,74],"class_list":["post-240162","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh-headlines","tag-pittsburgh-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240162","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=240162"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240162\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/240163"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=240162"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=240162"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=240162"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}