While completing a 13-3 record that tied for the NFL's best in 2017, the Steelers overcame several obstacles on and off the field that could have derailed a season that has seen them notch the third-most wins in team history.
Whether it was superstar quarterback Ben Roethlisberger talking about possibly retiring before the offseason even began, Le'Veon Bell in a weeks-long holdout from training camp, Alejandro Villanueva putting the team in the national spotlight over anthem protests, Antonio Brown making national headlines for flipping a Gatorade cooler or any of the other stories this season, the Steelers remained focused on the next play.
But among all the happenings this season, the one that had the biggest impact was Ryan Shazier being carted off during their game against the Bengals at Paul Brown Stadium in early December.
While the emotional aspect was present for the team as they visited Shazier in the hospital, worrying about whether their good friend would ever walk again, the other aspect always present was figuring out how to replace Shazier on the field.
He not only was the play caller for the defense, he was the centerpiece who was consistently on his assignment, while sometimes extending outside of his role to help other teammates who might have missed on theirs.
This Midweek Reader is an extended version of Carter's Classroom that explores those questions both in an extensive film room study and several interviews of the Steelers' players and coaches to understand just how the defense is working to replace Shazier.
TAKEN FOR GRANTED
Before we delve into what the Steelers are doing now, it's important to understand all Shazier was doing when he was healthy. We all remember the big plays like his interceptions against the Colts, Jaguars and Ravens or when he had a pass defensed against the Lions to close out another tight Steelers victory on Monday Night Football.
But to understand just how vital Shazier was for the Steelers, you have to see the little plays like the run stuffs that shut down an opponent even when the Steelers' defense might be caught out of position.
A perfect example of how Shazier would do that was this 3-yard run by Tarik Cohen on a first down. The Bears used a stretch run to the right in order to test the fortitude of the Steelers' left side of the defense that had Tyson Alualu and Bud Dupree trying to set the edge.
The stretch play is a run in which no lineman pulls to aid on any side of the ball and each looks to block in a particular zone on the field. This often slows the progression of inside linebackers, who read the movement of the guards and follow them to the play.
On this play, watch Shazier, highlighted in yellow, and how he's the linebacker lined up on the opposite side of this play. As soon as the ball is snapped he sprints across the field. Typically, the Bears would be looking for Shazier to get picked up by their left tackle, No. 72 Charles Leno, who is lined up on the inside linebacker.
Shazier's speed keeps Leno from laying a hand on him. He also beats Hroniss Grasu to the spot where the third-year center was running to block Vince Williams.
Williams watches as Shazier crosses his face and all of a sudden, Shazier is in the gap to take out Cohen and limit the Bears to a 3-yard gain on a play that, schematically, you wouldn't expect from a linebacker in his position:
There are too many plays Shazier made like that all season to review them all, and because he has the ability to make those plays, the Steelers weren't too alarmed when he occasionally missed a tackle.
But pass coverage was where Shazier was on a level all by himself. Even after missing the last four and a half games for the Steelers, Shazier still leads all NFL linebackers in passes defensed (11) and interceptions (3) in 2017. That's amazing when you consider that several other highly-respected linebackers have been playing all season, such as Luke Kuechly of the Panthers and Mark Barron of the Los Angeles Rams.
Shazier has always possessed elite speed. Even though he didn't run a 40-yard dash at the NFL scouting combine when he was working to get drafted in 2014, he was unofficially timed with a 4.36 time at Ohio State's pro day. If you want a good comparison to understand how ridiculous that is, the best time any linebacker recorded at the 2017 NFL scouting combine was 4.58. (Jabrill Peppers was considered as a potential linebacker even though he plays safety, but even he only ran a 4.46 time.)
Even in 2016, Shazier's speed was flashed across social media when he beat receivers Brown, Markus Wheaton and Sammie Coates in a 40-yard dash competition, as ESPN's Jeremy Fowler reported that June.
When you combine that speed with the intelligence and instincts Shazier possesses, you get amazing results, such as when he made a game-changing interception against Joe Flacco in Baltimore early in the season.
Watch how the Ravens called a play-action bootleg pass to try and open up receiving options on the weak side. Highlighted in red at the beginning of the play is Javon Hargrave, who never bit on the fake and pressured Flacco. This forced Flacco's hand, but the Ravens' former Super Bowl champion quarterback still thought he had a chance to complete a pass against a Steelers' defense that would be reacting to the fake handoff to the other side of the field.
As the play progresses, watch the yellow circle in the middle of the field. That highlights both Shazier and Dupree who are the linebackers who have to cover the tight ends running crossing patterns. Shazier not only turns around, but effortlessly accelerates so quickly he's underneath the pass for an easy interception:
These are the nightmares Shazier caused for quarterbacks all season. He could take away multiple receiving options and knew how to anticipate what opponents wanted to do with their schemes.
Remember his interception against Jacoby Brissett and the Colts that helped spark a fourth quarter comeback? That was all an in-game adjustment based off what Shazier saw on film.
Watch how Shazier blitzed up the middle and initially ran into Dupree's back. Notice how he never panicked and looked for a way to make a play for his team. He immediately identified the Colts' tight end, Jake Doyle, as a potential target and moved to cover him. That resulted in this:
Shazier's adjustment came because he knew Doyle led the Colts in receptions and was often Brissett's security blanket. He said as much to me after the game.
"When I couldn't find a lane to blitz through, I knew that Jake Doyle is one of Brissett's main targets," Shazier said in the Colts locker room. "Based off of film study, I knew Jake Doyle got a lot of catches on check-releases and things like that. Once I saw him slipping out a little bit, I realized Brissett was going to him. I was in position to make a tackle, but when a play presents itself you just have to take advantage of the opportunity."
Sean Spence is the linebacker the Steelers signed from free agency after Shazier's injury to help compensate for the loss of their star linebacker. Which is ironic, because Spence was once the inside linebacker who Shazier was drafted to surpass. He's seen the growth firsthand.
"Things happened," Spence said to Dale Lolley. "I got injured. I was out two years and they drafted Ryan. Ever since he got here, he’s gotten better and better. At first, he was making a lot of plays but he was making a lot of mistakes because he was so young. He was making plays just running around. Watching him over the years, he’s evolved into not just a playmaker but a guy who lines people up in the defense, who’s a signal caller. His growth has been huge."
When you add those signal-calling duties, you get the picture of just how vital Shazier was for the defense.
Mike Tomlin explained it very well to our own Dale Lolley at his Tuesday press conference this week:
Lolley: "What’s your comfort level with compensating for the absence of Ryan Shazier and the process of filling that role?"
Tomlin: "I’m very comfortable with the process and acknowledge that it has been and probably will continue to be an ongoing one relative to the matchups within the stadiums that we walk into. Ryan is that dynamic of a player. He’s an all-situations guy, and sometimes the people you replace him with are not all-situations people. So, one week’s adjustments might be different than the next week’s adjustments. I am increasingly comfortable with defining what that is and going through the process of selecting the ways in which we’re going to make the necessary plays to occupy his space. It may be different every week, obviously, because of the challenges mentioned."
Let's take a closer look at all the different 'not all-situations people' Tomlin and Keith Butler have called upon in their effort to compensate for Shazier.
PERSONNEL PROBLEMS (SNAP COUNTS)
The Steelers made the conscious decision to not invest in their depth at inside linebacker during the 2017 NFL draft. This decision left them extremely vulnerable should they have lost either Shazier or Williams due to injury as they were the only inside linebackers with more than one NFL start on their resume.
They passed on Reuben Foster from Alabama, potentially the top inside linebacker talent of the draft, for T.J. Watt. The decision was most likely based in their faith that Williams would play to a level expected of their "buck" inside linebacker.
The Steelers have tried to fill Shazier's spot in the defense with Tyler Matakevich, Arthur Moats, L.J. Fort and the recently re-signed Spence.
In the game before his injury, Shazier played 53 of 55 snaps for 96% of the Steelers' game against the Packers. In the Bengals game, it was Matakevich who received the majority of snaps in his stead with 41 of 64 for 64 percent of the game while Fort, who had one career start with Cleveland in 2012, played 17 snaps for 27 percent.
The Steelers first tried to answer the void left in their primary inside linebacker spot with an in-house adjustment by moving Moats, an outside linebacker, into Shazier's position. Moats split time with Fort and Spence, who was just signed that week, as Matakevich was out with a shoulder injury.
Against the Ravens, Spence led the snap count with 34 of 54 for 53 percent, while Moats was next with 19 snaps at 30 percent and Fort with eight snaps at 12 percent.
Spence has become the primary replacement for Shazier in the final weeks of the season, recording 75, 78 and 66 percent of the team's defensive snaps in the Steelers' final three games. Fort has been the linebacker the Steelers use in pass coverage, since his ability to cover in space is better than Williams and Spence.
Ultimately, as Tomlin told Lolley during his press conference this week, it's a group effort to find those answers.
"We are still working through our division of labor in terms of the replacement of Ryan Shaizer and the multiple people that are involved in that and finding comfort with that labor," Tomlin said at the Dan Rooney Sports Complex. "Whether it is individual people, L.J. Fort continuing to grow as a defender or different sub-packages, like we had a seven-defensive back sub-package with Cam Sutton in the game in different moments. We are still working through some things there and growing as a football team and in those areas."
We will get to the Sutton part in a bit, but the key point to take away from what Tomlin told Lolley is that the Steelers are trying so many different packages to fill the one spot Shazier occupied.
GAP INTEGRITY VS. THE RUN
Focusing on the Steelers' run defense efforts in Shazier's absence takes a few levels to understand what they've seen with the different players they've used. Let's take a look at Matakevich when he tried to fill in for Shazier in the first half against the Bengals.
For the most part, the Steelers were in disarray until the second half after seeing Shazier's injury. Matakevich had to try to fill in for everything that Shazier was doing, which is difficult when you try to replace Shazier's 4.36 speed with Matakevich's 4.81 time in the 40-yard dash.
Combine that with Matakevich being a second-year player trying to understand where he fits into the Steelers' defense and you have a lot of problems that can be exploited. Watch how Matakevich, highlighted in yellow, floated away from his responsibility in the middle of the defense.
That put him in a position where Cam Heyward and Watt were already covering and exposed the middle of the defense, where Giovani Bernard ripped them for ten yards:
Matakevich was not only lost, but didn't have the recovery speed to make up for his confusion. He didn't even get contacted by a Bengals' lineman and couldn't get back to the spot where Bernard ran through the line.
When Matakevich got hurt, the Steelers turned to Moats and the newly-signed Spence to fill Shazier's spot. That didn't work out too well against the Ravens, as the defense gave up a season-high 38 points and allowed 152 yards to Baltimore's ground game.
Watch how Moats played in the correct gap, but looked so out of place as the Ravens' center, Ryan Jansen, got on him and sealed Moats out of the play:
In that situation, the Steelers either need the inside linebacker to beat Jansen, or come up to the line of scrimmage and engage him closer to the ball carrier to close down the hole.
The Moats' experiment ended after that week, but the Steelers have found answers in Spence. Their former third-round pick played for the Steelers during the Dick LeBeau era and had a generic understanding of how the team liked to use its linebackers, as well as the gap responsibilities that come with the position.
When Lolley asked Spence about the changes in the defense since his departure after 2015, Spence shrugged it off as if it wasn't an adjustment at all.
"I don’t think much has changed since I was gone," Spence said. "We made a few tweaks to the defense, but for the most part it was the same when I got back."
While Spence lacks the explosion you would want from a starting inside linebacker, he does display a solid knowledge of what his role is in the defense. Watch here how Spence filled his gap against an inside zone scheme against the Browns where he faced Isaiah Crowell in a pretty large hole. Spence did allow a 7-yard gain, but he played his gap and didn't allow this play to go for more:
Being in the right spot is the biggest thing the Steelers need from Spence.. He's a veteran, so he's learned a few tricks. Spence suffered an injury in the preseason of 2012, his rookie year. Not only did it end his season, but at the time, it was considered a potential career-ending injury.
Spence admits he's lost a step, but has found ways to compensate as a competitor.
"At first I thought I lost a step," Spence told Lolley earlier this week. "But as I kept playing games and got my body back used to playing games, I regained my speed. Returning from the injury I had, it took a while."
What Spence has also added is a few good tricks to disengage with linemen when they get their hands on him. Watch how he spins out of a block despite being caught off-guard initially in order to stay in the hole and make the tackle:
Though Spence still has a lot of room to improve, he's been making plays within the Steelers' scheme that show increased comfort.
"From the Baltimore game to Houston, I feel like I gained a lot," Spence said. "The Baltimore game, things were just flashing and I was like, ‘Whoa.’ I hadn’t seen that in a minute. Then, we played the Patriots and things slowed down a little bit more. (Against Houston) things slowed down even more."
Sometimes being a linebacker doesn't mean flying all over the field, when the job calls for a player to stay in his spot and hold a particular gap in check. Spence does that here when he maintains the edge by keeping his outside shoulder free and forcing Crowell back to the inside of the Steelers' defense:
While Spence noted he's starting to see the game better and make progress, Butler has noticed it as well.
"He was (struggling) at first but he’s getting better," Butler said. "He’s getting a lot better than he had been physically. At first, he struggled physically and that is the thing that is going to happen to you when you come back and you’ve been out that long. You don’t all of a sudden walk off of the street and play NFL football games. He’s had to get used to it and he’ll get better and better each week."
And if anything, Butler sees Spence as a key part to how the entire Steelers' defense has responded to the void left after Shazier's injury.
"I think our guys have gotten better each week," Butler said. "I think getting Spence here, Spence has been here before, I coached him before when I was a linebacker coach and he pretty much knows what I expect out of him. The addition of him has helped us in that regard. It has made it easier on Vince, so hopefully we can keep improving and hit stride when we are supposed to be."
COMMUNICATION
One part of the Steelers' defense that doesn't show up on film but is always essential to its success is its communication. As offenses make their pre-snap adjustments, the defense always has to match. They have to make sure everyone is on the same page as far as what gaps are assigned and what assignments every player has in the event of a pass.
Shazier was always in the middle of making those calls. Particularly because he's a student of the game. But don't take my word for it, hear it from Butler himself.
"Everybody knew how much he had studied the game and the work he had put into it, so they admire him for it," Butler said. "And when you lose somebody like that, you lose a quarterback, and basically if you are going to compare it to anything, that’s how you would compare it."
While we've been showing you all the different attempted adjustments by the Steelers in their personnel, it would be reasonable to expect a similar amount of changes in the communication efforts across the board.
Unless you talk to the Steelers' best remaining inside linebacker, Vince Williams, who has started all season alongside Shazier and his replacements.
Just read his exchange with Dale Lolley when asked about communication changes that have come without Shazier on the field, to lead that endeavor.
Dale: "Other than calling the plays, how has your job changed without Ryan?"
Williams: "It hasn’t really changed."
Dale: "So everything’s exactly the same?"
Williams: "Exactly the same."
Dale: "But the level of trust can’t be the same."
Williams: "I trust them as individuals to do their job. That’s the choice you have with anybody. Obviously, we don’t have the same chemistry, I think that’s what you’re getting at. But that doesn’t change the way I play at all."
The Steelers are probably glad Williams hasn't changed the way he's played because he's been one of the biggest contributors to their defense this season with eight sacks, the most of any of their linebackers.
When Lolley asked Williams about his play this year, Williams spoke positively of himself and the defense as a whole.
"I feel like I’ve had a pretty successful season. I feel like our defense has had a pretty successful season. When you have a defensive effort like that, people have obviously made plays. I feel like I’ve made the plays that were designed for me to make."
That last line is Williams' way of saying Butler's scheme has been a big reason for the Steelers' success. Butler has found a variety of ways to pressure the quarterback all season.
The Steelers ended the season with the most sacks in the NFL, as well as the most sacks in franchise history with 56. None of which came from Shazier, but that was because of how vital he was in coverage.
While the Steelers finished the season ranked fifth in the NFL in pass defense at 201.1 yards allowed per game, they averaged 193.4 yards when Shazier played full games this season. Had they maintained that average over the last five weeks without Shazier, that would have put them at third in the NFL against the pass, behind only the Jaguars and Vikings.
The Jaguars were the NFL's upstart defense of the year with four defensive players who made the Pro Bowl and the Vikings earned the No. 2 seed in the NFC with three defensive players selected to this year's Pro Bowl.
Shazier was the only defensive player from the Steelers who made the Pro Bowl. That's another perfect example of just how valuable he was to this unit.
PASS COVERAGE
Getting into the Steelers' pass defense, we shift focus away from Spence and over to Fort. He had a different path than Spence to the NFL, as he entered the league as an undrafted free agent signed by the Browns in 2012. Fort bounced between five teams before landing with the Steelers in 2015 and has become the team's preferred inside linebacker in coverage since Shazier's injury.
That comes from Fort's speed and ability to move in space to help against the pass. He ran a 4.67 in his pro day coming from Northern Iowa, a time faster than Williams' 4.76 and Spence's 4.71 when they were coming out of college.
Fort isn't the best against the run and has problems engaging with linemen while maintaining his gap assignment, but when the Steelers are in a predictable passing situation, he's their man to drop back into the middle of the defense and cover large zones.
Watch how he gets this pass defensed after dropping back ten yards beyond the line of scrimmage and being able to swat a ball over his head that was intended for a receiver another ten yards behind him:
But the Steelers don't use Fort in all passing situations; just primarily when they know their opponents will be looking for deeper passes that allow for his range to be a positive factor.
"He moves well," Butler said of Fort's merits. "He plays coverage well. He’s been in the system for a couple of years, so he kind of knows what we expect of him. He knows what we’re doing."
When it's a passing down and the opposing offense can target underneath the defense, the Steelers have used several different packages that include both Williams and Spence. Neither is particularly fast or reliable in man coverage against fast running backs, but the Steelers' preparation helped negate that against the Patriots.
Williams nabbed the team's first interception against Tom Brady since Chris Hope back in 2005. But it came from a team effort that included solid plays from Hargrave and Spence.
Williams, highlighted in yellow at the start of the play, had to line up over James White, the receiving running back who scored the winning touchdown in the Super Bowl for the Patriots last year. Spence, highlighted in red, was playing an intermediate zone to help over the middle.
When White beats Williams across the field, Spence recognizes the mismatch and cuts off White in his drag route. By cutting him off, Spence has eliminated Brady's designed read on the play. Hargrave's applied pressure forces Brady's pass into a tight window and allows Williams to finish the play with the interception:
This play is not just a highlight of communication paying off for the Steelers' defense, it's also an example of the defense having several players win their assignments across the field. Between the pressure and the coverage the team applied across the board, the defense did its job.
Thanks to the return of Joe Haden to the secondary, Butler feels confident about how his defense is trending.
"I think our secondary is getting healthy and stuff like that," Butler said after the Steelers beat the Texans. "I think that helps us quite a bit and if we can stay healthy up front, with our guys up front, Cam [Heyward] and [Stephon] Tuitt, and our outside guys and 79 [Javon Hargrave] is going to do a good job for us, so hopefully we can do a better job against the run than we have been."
But as Tomlin alluded to in his press conference, the Steelers are still experimenting with methods to maximize their defensive talent without Shazier on the field. Rookie cornerback Cameron Sutton saw three snaps on Sunday against the Browns in a sub packages.
The Steelers know that they will most likely face some athletic receiving running backs who run routes out of the backfield and present tough matchup challenges for Spence, Williams and even Fort.
But when Sutton lined up against the Browns in a third-down situation that the Steelers were sure was a pass, he lined up in the box as a potential blitzer with a man assignment to cover the running back. Having both him and Sean Davis around the line confused the Browns' protection unit and opened up a hole for Davis to exploit and sack DeShone Kizer:
The Steelers are a team that has already shown they are willing to find whatever methods they can on the field to get the job done. They've played games without Tuitt, Watt, Haden and Mike Mitchell. Now they have to compensate for their most dangerous weapon in Shazier.
That is a tall task, but as you can see they have tried several different variations and packages with their personnel to discover what works best.
Without Shazier, the Steelers have had to completely redraw how their defense works and disguise what they're doing in order to find ways to still confuse quarterbacks into mistakes, while keeping their other defensive playmakers in position to win their assignments.
Ultimately, every added sub package and newly designed scheme is just another tip of the hat to what Shazier had been doing for the Steelers' defense. When he was on the field he was a quadruple threat that opposing offenses had to plan against. And he might have been the best defensive weapon in the NFL.
Staff writer Dale Lolley contributed to this report.
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