{"id":287951,"date":"2026-09-17T06:46:09","date_gmt":"2026-09-17T06:46:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/287951\/"},"modified":"2026-09-17T06:46:09","modified_gmt":"2026-09-17T06:46:09","slug":"one-more-examination-of-how-pittsburgh-used-its-big-four-outside-linebackers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/287951\/","title":{"rendered":"One More Examination Of How Pittsburgh Used Its ‘Big Four’ Outside Linebackers"},"content":{"rendered":"

Yesterday, we explored the Pittsburgh Steelers\u2019 three-EDGE personnel grouping<\/a> and how its rise in Week One went beyond just pass-rushing moments. Pittsburgh\u2019s blessing and curse is getting its top four outside linebackers on the field: T.J. Watt, Alex Highsmith, Nick Herbig, and Jack Sawyer. The team\u2019s deepest and most talented unit, the Steelers will juggle that act throughout the year.<\/p>\n

Digging into our charting more, here are a couple of other numbers to consider:<\/p>\n

Defensive Snaps (57 Total)<\/p>\n

Player
\nTotal Defensive Snaps<\/p>\n

Alex Highsmith
\n43<\/p>\n

T.J. Watt
\n38<\/p>\n

Nick Herbig
\n33<\/p>\n

Jack Sawyer
\n20<\/p>\n

Pass Rush Snaps (26 Total)<\/p>\n

Player
\nPass Rush Snaps<\/p>\n

T.J. Watt
\n21<\/p>\n

Alex Highsmith
\n19<\/p>\n

Nick Herbig
\n7<\/p>\n

Jack Sawyer
\n5<\/p>\n

Third Down Snaps (12 Total)<\/p>\n

Player
\nThird Down Snaps<\/p>\n

T.J. Watt
\n12<\/p>\n

Alex Highsmith
\n10<\/p>\n

Nick Herbig
\n4<\/p>\n

Jack Sawyer
\n0<\/p>\n

Remember, these are intentionally charted acts by outside linebackers coach C.J. Ah You.<\/a> The team no longer goes off \u201cvibes\u201d of starters bowing out on their own accord.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s no surprise to see Watt and Highsmith dominate both lists. Herbig, despite Pittsburgh using its three-outside linebacker package plenty, had limited opportunities in key moments. He finished just ahead of Jack Sawyer in pass rush snaps and lagged far behind Watt and Highsmith on third-down reps. It\u2019s likely no coincidence Watt and Highsmith hardly left the field in those big-time moments.<\/p>\n

It provides data to Vince Williams\u2019 point<\/a> that Herbig didn\u2019t get enough chances to get after the quarterback. Though Pittsburgh made sure to get him on the field, he was often aligned off-ball like an inside linebacker or as an overhang player out in space. He\u2019s even still on the punt coverage team.<\/p>\n

For being the team\u2019s newest $100 million man, the Steelers can\u2019t lose sight of what he does best. Rush the quarterback.<\/p>\n

One game is a small sample and hardly speaks to how the next 16 regular-season games will go. Pittsburgh blitzed just once against Atlanta. That won\u2019t happen every week. Nor will facing such a run-heavy approach like the Falcons deployed, leaning on Bijan Robinson to mitigate starting third-string quarterback Cooper Rush.<\/p>\n

Future game plans with more aggression and different circumstances could see Herbig get those chances. Pittsburgh may be even more mindful of reps and snap count the longer the team moves into its season, especially for its short-week games (Thursday night in Week Four,<\/a> Black Friday in Week 12, and any late-season Saturday games).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Yesterday, we explored the Pittsburgh Steelers\u2019 three-EDGE personnel grouping and how its rise in Week One went beyond…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":287952,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[7664,15386,3285,73,75,74,3284],"class_list":["post-287951","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pittsburgh","tag-alex-highsmith","tag-jack-sawyer","tag-nick-herbig","tag-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh-headlines","tag-pittsburgh-news","tag-t-j-watt"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/287951","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=287951"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/287951\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/287952"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=287951"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=287951"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=287951"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}