{"id":88054,"date":"2026-01-16T01:13:18","date_gmt":"2026-01-16T01:13:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/88054\/"},"modified":"2026-01-16T01:13:18","modified_gmt":"2026-01-16T01:13:18","slug":"analyst-thinks-chris-shulas-defense-would-shine-through-in-pittsburgh","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/88054\/","title":{"rendered":"Analyst Thinks Chris Shula’s Defense Would ‘Shine Through’ In Pittsburgh"},"content":{"rendered":"

If there\u2019s one thing we\u2019ve seen from the head coach interview requests the Pittsburgh Steelers have made, it\u2019s an affinity for a defensive-minded head coach. Of the Steelers\u2019 requests<\/a>, most have come on the defensive side of the ball, including names like Chris Shula, Jesse Minter, Brian Flores, and Jeff Hafley.<\/p>\n

Many of those coaches could fit with the Steelers for different reasons. To The Athletic\u2019s Robert Mays, Shula especially sticks out.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou look at the guys who are mainstays on this team, it\u2019s still built through the front. The same way the Rams are. Chris Shula is a front-first defensive coach,\u201d Mays said Thursday on his Athletic Football Show<\/a>. \u201cAnd so, schematically, I actually think that one [Shula] does make some sense, considering the way the Steelers are built.\u201d<\/p>\n

Shula\u2019s Los Angeles defense certainly does like to get after the passer. The Rams had 47 sacks this season, not far off the pace set by the league leaders. They also generated 174 quarterback pressures, the fourth-most in the NFL. More impressively, the defense reached those numbers with hardly blitzing. Los Angeles blitzed just 17.7 percent of the time in 2025, the second-lowest rate in the league.<\/p>\n

Of course, Chris Shula has benefitted from having some excellent pass rushers in Los Angeles. But he would have the same in Pittsburgh. Plenty of people have plenty of opinions about T.J. Watt nowadays, but he can still create splash plays. Alex Highsmith finished the year on a tear, and Nick Herbig remains promising as well. On the interior, the Steelers got a great season out of Cam Heyward, and an impressive rookie campaign from Derrick Harmon.<\/p>\n

There are some aging players on the unit, though. And with new staff members coming in, opinions on some of the Steelers\u2019 mainstays certainly could change. But even if the Steelers shed some players, Mays still thinks the building blocks to make Shula\u2019s system work would be there.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think it takes a huge nudge for you to just completely reset with a young roster. And that doesn\u2019t require tearing it down,\u201d Mays said. \u201cAnd even if there\u2019s a world where you move on from T.J. Watt, maybe Cam Heyward in the next year or two, you still have Derrick Harmon, Keeanu Benton, Alex Highsmith. You still have Nick Herbig. You still have real, front talent on that team. And I think that\u2019s where he really shines through.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fans have been clamoring for Herbig to receive more snaps, something they\u2019re right to demand<\/a>. But aside from him, a core of Keeanu Benton, Derrick Harmon and Alex Highsmith is certainly promising for an incoming defensive-minded head coach. That doesn\u2019t even mention Jack Sawyer, Yahya Black or Payton Wilson. Another group of young players in the front seven with a lot of potential.<\/p>\n

The Steelers have a ton of options during this cycle. While Chris Shula is one who makes sense, he\u2019s far from the only one. But it\u2019s worth mentioning the Steelers had been connected to<\/a> Shula even before Tomlin stepped down. If Shula is their man, there\u2019s reasons to be optimistic about the way this defense might look.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"If there\u2019s one thing we\u2019ve seen from the head coach interview requests the Pittsburgh Steelers have made, it\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":88055,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[7664,43161,43847,15386,43848,3285,73,75,74,43849,43850],"class_list":{"0":"post-88054","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-pittsburgh","8":"tag-alex-highsmith","9":"tag-chris-shula","10":"tag-derrick-harmon","11":"tag-jack-sawyer","12":"tag-keenau-benton","13":"tag-nick-herbig","14":"tag-pittsburgh","15":"tag-pittsburgh-headlines","16":"tag-pittsburgh-news","17":"tag-robert-mays","18":"tag-the-athletic-football-show"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88054","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=88054"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88054\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/88055"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=88054"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=88054"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=88054"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}