OTAs are here as the NFL season inches closer. This week, Read & React will be taking a look at a young defender who could be stepping into a bigger role in 2025. Plus, we’ll be ranking the top 10 players on the Steelers roster — draft-style! What are the biggest strengths on the team this season?
Steelers in review: LB Payton Wilson
Photo by Todd Rosenberg/Getty Images
As always, we’ll be divvying up our review and analysis. Ryland will focus on Payton’s work against the run, and Ryan will examine how Payton fared in pass coverage.
RB: Per usual, I’ll start with a TL;DR of Wilson’s status at this point in the offseason.
Drafted in the third round of the 2024 NFL Draft, Wilson, the reigning Butkus Award winner as college football’s best linebacker, was seen as a bit of a steal (and a surprise pick) for Pittsburgh. The team hadn’t exactly telegraphed a need at inside linebacker, but it proved to be a worthwhile selection as Wilson logged 45% of the team’s defensive snaps his rookie year as Cole Holcomb never saw the field due to injury.
How exactly did Wilson, an elite college linebacker with a 9.89 RAS and an absurd 4.43-second 40-yard dash fall all the way to the third round? Multiple shoulder and ACL injuries, including a report (that Wilson later refuted) that he was missing the ligament in his right knee.
Wilson played primarily on passing downs his rookie year, showing encouraging durability with appearances in every game on the Steelers’ schedule. His first NFL season had some ups and downs, but the overwhelming consensus is that the Steelers got a future stud at inside linebacker.
Wilson logged 78 combined tackles, three tackles for loss, one forced fumble, one interception, and two passes defensed in 2024.
I’ll start off by taking a look at the rookie’s run defense:
Listed at 6’4, 242 pounds on the Steelers website, Wilson has a lean, lanky frame for an NFL inside linebacker. His athleticism is excellent, but there were concerns regarding how he’d hold up against the run game at the NFL level.
Pittsburgh seemingly didn’t entirely trust Wilson in that phase of the game either (it didn’t help that every-down linebacker Patrick Queen has a similar block-shedding weakness), with Elandon Roberts taking most of the run-down workload opposite Queen at inside linebacker last season. And it seems the newly-signed Malik Harrison will be filling that role to some extent in 2025.
However, when watching every Wilson run defense snap in his last handful of games of the season, I came away impressed with how impactful he was. It’s a small sample size — he averaged around 10 plays agains the run per game — but to me, he played his way to a bigger role next season.
We can get the bad out of the way first. Some of Wilson’s draft profile weaknesses did show up late in the season. He’s a mixed bag taking on blocks, with the athleticism and solid hand usage to disengage when coming from an angle, but not head-on. He can play upright at times and even get occasionally pushed around by tight ends, which isn’t the best sign.
If he wants to take the next step as an NFL linebacker, he’ll have to get stronger at the point of attack.
There are also a few missed tackles on his tape — nothing that shows a worrying trend, but Wilson can be a bit of a lunging missile with over-aggressive angles at times who doesn’t always finish the play.
He’s more of a free-flowing playmaker right now rather than a Elandon Roberts-esque brick wall run-stuffer. Sometimes his playing style is more box safety than linebacker. But that isn’t to say Wilson isn’t a physical player. He still had his share of stops in 2024 fighting through blockers.
Wilson’s rare athleticism also let him knife through the defense rather than having to fight through blocks, which often yielded good results. He’s a twitchy athlete with good closing speed that will only improve as he continues to become more comfortable in the Steelers defense.
And his range, as the cliche goes, is truly sideline-to-sideline. Wilson is a high-effort player with special acceleration for a linebacker. There are some excellent reps on his 2024 tape.
Linebacker is a tough position to learn as a rookie, and although Wilson wasn’t tasked with being an every-down run defender, I came away largely impressed with his ability to react to defenses and make plays.
I’d still like to see a bit more consistency and play strength when runs come right at him, but there is every reason to be optimistic about Wilson becoming a more complete NFL starter over his career. If he stays healthy, the future seems bright for the Steelers linebacker.
RP: After doing a handful of these season reviews, it feels like I’ve taken on the role of bad cop. Bickley started with the bad and then washed it down with a spoonful of sugar and positive elements of Wilson in the run game. I’ll be doing the exact opposite with the passing game.
I’ll provide this disclaimer at the top: two things can be true at the same time. On the one hand, I do think pass coverage is the strongest element of Wilson’s game thus far in his career, and I do have high hopes for his future development. PFF graded Wilson as the fifth-best linebacker in coverage in all of football last year, after all. That’s right, not among rookies, but among all linebackers with enough snaps to qualify. That’s outstanding.
That said, looking at his rookie season objectively, while he may have been ahead of the curve compared to most rookie linebackers, there are still plenty of blemishes and moments of hesitation in his game that will need ironing out if he wants to consistently be considered among the league’s best.
Let’s start with the positives. Wilson can flat move. That trait helps him recover from the occasional misstep, and it allows the Steelers to deploy zone schemes they might otherwise not be able to.
THE highlight of Wilson's rookie season.
He takes a bit of a bad angle at first when pursuing the RB's route, but has the athleticism to make up for it. Heady play to get his arms up, the INT is a bit flukey, but still a hell of a play pic.twitter.com/M03dZsnalK
— Ryan Parish (@RyanParishmedia) May 28, 2025
In our first clip, Raven’s running back Justice Hill had Wilson dead to rights after Wilson’s initial pursuit angle got cooked by the wheel route. However, Wilson was able to showcase his recovery speed and his spatial awareness to throw his arm up to disrupt the pass was rewarded with an awkward exchange resulting in Wilson's sole interception of the season.
Later in the season. Not targeted on this route, but watch him bail from the A gap at the LOS and take away the in-breaking route from Chase pic.twitter.com/U1fvb8J8VU
— Ryan Parish (@RyanParishmedia) May 28, 2025
Wilson’s speed is also on display in the clips above and below. In the first clip, the Steelers line Wilson up in the A gap — a formation they loved to have him in — and then ask him to bail out to the deep middle of the field. Wilson executes it perfectly, not allowing Burrow and Ja’Marr Chase enough time to let the in-breaking route develop.
In the second clip, Wilson lines up further back, but the Steelers are still asking him to cover a lot of ground to get from the far right hash and undercut the route on the boundary. Wilson pulls it off and Burrow has to look elsewhere on the play. Could you imagine, say, Elandon Roberts being asked to make that play?
Wilson needed to be on his horse for this one, but he and the corner successfully bracket the TE on the outside as Wilson covers the ground to cut underneath him. This coverage clearly makes Burrow hold the ball and retreat into improv mode pic.twitter.com/mz0VCHWKj5
— Ryan Parish (@RyanParishmedia) May 28, 2025
That speed and fluid movement skills also should allow Wilson to develop into the player who can finally solve the issues the Steelers have long had with tight ends running in the seam.
He wasn't used this way as often as you'd expect, but watch him take the TE in the seam here after motion by the offense changed up his assignment, no target pic.twitter.com/jll1cMYSh6
— Ryan Parish (@RyanParishmedia) May 28, 2025
Understandably, Wilson was most comfortable as a rookie handling routes near the line of scrimmage. In the three games where I watched every coverage snap (Baltimore, Kansas City, Cincinnati) the majority of Wilson’s time was spent covering running backs and tight ends. When Wilson was at his best, he was able to take away the route or quickly rally for the tackle.
As a LB, the majority of Wilson's time will be spent taking away routes from TEs and RBs, and he seemed most comfortable with these routes nearer the LOS.
Here he's not targeted w/ tight coverage on the hook route from the TE pic.twitter.com/bjQERD35p4
— Ryan Parish (@RyanParishmedia) May 28, 2025
You won't be able to prevent every quick throw, so it's good to see Wilson is able to rally and tackle more often than not (tho more on the “nots” later…) pic.twitter.com/PO5cP6QQm3
— Ryan Parish (@RyanParishmedia) May 28, 2025
Wilson wasn’t perfect, however. There were plenty of times where a bad angle, poor tackling form, or moments of confusion and/or hesitation impacted a play negatively.
Take the following plays for example:
So there are a lot of positives to Wilson's game. However, he still suffered rookie growing pains.
Take this bad angle/overpursuit on Travis Kelce. Prime Kelce woulda turned that into an explosive play pic.twitter.com/or8VYM7jFb
— Ryan Parish (@RyanParishmedia) May 28, 2025
Kelce gets the better of him again on this play, where Wilson is clearly having some pre-snap communication issues. His head is turned, looking behind him at the snap pic.twitter.com/azY09UnsUn
— Ryan Parish (@RyanParishmedia) May 28, 2025
Asking Wilson to keep up with Xavier Worthy isn't fair, especially with KC getting creative and sending him through the B gap.
Wilson is able to get into trail fairly quickly, but he's behind just enough that he isn't able to make a sound tackle and Worthy YACs it up pic.twitter.com/rT7cQSQTcA
— Ryan Parish (@RyanParishmedia) May 28, 2025
Another bad tackle attempt, this time in the RZ against the RB. Wilson tries to wrap the RB up around the shoulders and it does not work pic.twitter.com/RAgZuuATJ1
— Ryan Parish (@RyanParishmedia) May 28, 2025
So clearly, Wilson’s game isn’t without warts. Those were just a handful of negative plays from three games, so you can easily envision where Wilson still has room to grow. He’s not Fred Warner — the best coverage linebacker in the game right now — but he is a plus-player with room to grow.
I’ll end my analysis by taking a page out of Bickley’s first. Here are two plays from the Baltimore game that show Wilson’s ability to learn during the middle of a game. Imagine what another full offseason with the organization can do for him.
I'm still encouraged by Wilson's future, so we'll leave with this example of him learning. First clip: He gets picked by the route and actually collides with his teammate. Second clip: we see he's learned and adapted from his previous mistake later in the game pic.twitter.com/h9yXV94fbr
— Ryan Parish (@RyanParishmedia) May 28, 2025
Steelers 2025 Roster Top-10 Draft
In an effort to highlight who Read & React thinks the best players on the roster currently are, Ryan and Ryland will be drafting five players each. We’re not filling out any positions or categories, purely picking the players we think are the best at their jobs. We’re also excluding quarterbacks, currently rostered or otherwise, for this process.
It should be noted, rookies were not excluded, but none were selected. We share a mindset that a player needs to prove it on an NFL field first, even if we are excited about their potential, and the results reflect that.
1. TJ Watt, outside linebacker
Photo by Nick Cammett/Diamond Images via Getty Images
RP: No surprises here with the first pick and what I assume to be a consensus pick for best Steeler on the roster. It should be telling about Watt’s talent that 2024 was considered a “down year” by his standards, yet he still managed 11.5 sacks, 6 forced fumbles, 19 tackles for loss and 27 QB hits.
Since entering the league in 2017, Watt has been a perennial Defensive Player of the Year candidate. In that timespan, he leads the NFL with 108 sacks, with Cleveland’s Myles Garrett (102.5) offering the only real competition in a top-5 that is rounded out by retired Aaron Donald (83.0), Houston’s Danielle Hunter (81.0) and Kansas City’s Chris Jones (78.5). Watt’s 33 forced fumbles and 12 fumble recoveries during that time also far outpace the next closest defender, Khalil Mack, in both categories with 24 and 10, respectively.
While a decision about a contract extension looms over the Steelers and Watt this summer, Watt and the Steelers' track records suggest both sides will find a way to come together on a new deal before the first kickoff of the season. And he’s certainly a player his teammates hold in high regard.
2. Cam Heyward, defensive line
Photo by Mitchell Leff/Getty Images
RB: The crazy part about “drafting” the 36-year-old Heyward here is that no part of it was a legacy pick. Heyward’s history as a Steeler is absolutely something special, but this activity is about who is elite right now — and that’s a label that still applies to No. 97, even entering his 15th season.
It wasn’t always that obvious following Heyward’s injury-stricken 2023. Before he signed his extension last offseason, there were calls from the fanbase and media to take a pay cut or even retire. Father Time is undefeated, right?
Heyward signed a three-year, $45 million deal in September. Despite worries that it would be an overpay, the veteran D-lineman made it look like an outright bargain following his 2024 season, which included 71 total tackles, eight sacks, and a well-deserved first-team All-Pro nod. Heyward’s bull rush remains among the best in the league, and his run defense is still elite. Just an incredible player.
3. DK Metcalf, wide receiver
Photo by Michael Owens/Getty Images
RP: With the two leaders of the Black and Gold’s defense off the board, this is where the draft format gets interesting. While we’ve yet to see him officially suit up for a Steelers game, I’ll go ahead and pick DK Metcalf.
In 97 career games, Metcalf totaled 438 receptions for 6,324 yards and 48 touchdowns. Metcalf set several franchise records in Seattle, and his single-season highs of 90 receptions (14th), 1,303 yards (11th), and 12 touchdowns (T-3rd) would all rank as some of the best in Steelers history.
The Steelers are betting that Metcalf can continue that production for his new team, and they paid him handsomely to be just that. If you want a full breakdown of Metcalf’s strengths and limitations, I did a Film Room breakdown shortly after the news of his trade was announced.
4. Chris Boswell, kicker
Photo by Perry Knotts/Getty Images
RB: Boswell — a kicker — might seem like a mild surprise to take this early. But if you return to our criteria (“players we think are the best at their jobs”), I’d argue I got an absolute steal with the fourth pick here.
In fact, you could easily argue that no Steeler was better at their job than Boswell last season, who earned a first-team All-Pro nod as the league’s best kicker. His 41/44 record backs that up, including 13 makes of 50-plus yards and a perfect 35/35 on extra points. And Boswell scored all of the Steelers’ offensive points in two of the team’s wins last season, going six-for-six on both occasions.
Oh yeah, he came in clutch with a 43-yard emergency punt in Week 1, too.
Boswell’s 2024 should go down as one of the best, if not the best, single season for a kicker in team history. His consistency, as well as the pure volume of points he scored last year, should not be taken for granted.
5. Zach Frazier, center
Photo by Kevin Sabitus/Getty Images
RP: Outside of Watt and Heyward, it’d be hard to find a player Steelers fans agree on more than center Zach Frazier. Frazier, a four-year starter at nearby West Virginia, was practically a fan favorite before he was even selected by the Steelers. Pre-draft mocks frequently had the former Mountaineer headed to Pittsburgh, and Frazier wasted little time living up to the hype.
Frazier was named to the Pro Football Writers of America’s All-Rookie team as well as the recipient of the Steelers’ Joe Greene Great Performance Award, which is the organization’s award for the best-performing rookie.
Frazier started 15 games and was a stabilizing force on an offensive line that battled injuries all season and had to adjust to two different quarterbacks starting games. PFF had Frazier graded as the 6th overall center (77.9), and his grades in run blocking (80.5, 5th) and pass blocking 68.6, 10th) were both top-10 grades for a center, good enough for top marks in a relatively loaded draft class at his position. Frazier’s 2024 performance already has beat writers predicting he’ll earn his first All-Pro selection in year two.
Frazier’s future in Pittsburgh is bright.
6. Minkah Fitzpatrick, safety
Photo by Kevin Sabitus/Getty Images
RB: Fitzpatrick has gradually slipped out of superstardom with only one interception over his last two seasons. He’s certainly not above criticism, but ask yourself: Just how many current Steelers would you draft over the three-time first-team All-Pro? The No. 6 pick feels fair.
Fitzpatrick isn’t as dynamic as he was during his incredible stretch of play from 2019-2022, but he’s still in his prime at 28 years old and playing at a high level.
Turnover production is notoriously inconsistent; it can’t be the only way we judge players. Fitzpatrick has been tasked with copious amounts of single-high safety play in recent years and has stood out as a reliable open-field tackler. He put up 96 combined tackles last season and has been a constant in a secondary that’s had a carousel of names in the starting lineup over the last several years.
Turn on the tape and you’ll see a safety who’s still well above average in man coverage and a very good zone defender. Fitzpatrick is without a doubt still one of the top players on the roster.
7. Joey Porter Jr., cornerback
Photo by Justin K. Aller/Getty Images
RP: While some labeled Porter’s 2024 season a disappointment, I still consider him one of the emerging young talents in the NFL. His 56.3 PFF coverage grade (92nd among qualified CBs) paints a bleak picture, but I don’t think Porter’s season was as bad as that makes it seem.
Ask around who some of the best young corners in the league are, and I wager the list would include names like:
2024 stats
Patrick Surtain II — 682 coverage snaps, 55 targets, 8% target rate, 72.7 Rec%, 396 yards, 2 TDs, 4 INTs, 5 PBUs
Sauce Gardner — 490 snaps, 47 targets, 9.5% target rate, 53.2 Rec%, 391 yards, 1 TD, 1 INT, 7 PBUs
Derek Stingley Jr. — 709 snaps, 95 targets, 13.3% target rate, 45.3 Rec%, 456 yards, 3 TDs, 7 INTs, 11 PBUs
Christian Gonzalez — 563 snaps, 84 targets, 14.9% target rate, 54.8 Rec%, 499 yards, 2 TDs, 2 INTs, 7 PBUs
Christian Benford — 653 snaps, 62 targets, 9.5% target rate, 62.9 Rec%, 415 yards, 2 TDs, 2 INTs, 6 PBUs
Jaylon Johnson — 575 snaps, 51 targets, 8.9% target rate, 62.7 Rec%, 424 yards, 2 TDs, 2 INTs, 4 PBUs
Garrett Williams — 514 snaps, 60 targets, 11.6% target rate, 58.3 Rec%, 343 yards, 2 TDs, 2 INTs, 6 PBUs
Cooper DeJean — 606 snaps, 97 targets, 16% target rate, 71.1 Rec%, 388 yards, 0 TDs, 1 INT, 7 PBUs
Quinyon Mitchell — 764 snaps, 87 targets, 11.4% target rate, 56.3 Rec%, 502 yards, 3 TDs, 2 INTs, 10 PBUs
Trent McDuffie — 750 snaps, 102 targets, 13.6% target rate, 60.8 Rec%, 661 yards, 6 TDs, 2 INTs, 8 PBUs
Those players are among the league’s best. And yet I can’t help but feel like Porter’s production was not far off from his peers:
Joey Porter Jr — 646 snaps, 79 targets, 12.2% target rate, 67.1 Rec%, 653 yards, 1 TD, 1 INT, 5 PBUs
Porter’s ball skills have always been a question mark in his game, and he’s hot and cold as a tackler. Still, he’s the best young corner the team has brought on in years and is not that far off from his peers in many key metrics. Steelers fans should be happy to have him on the team.
8. DeShon Elliott, safety
Photo by Candice Ward/Getty Images
RB: This pick might feel a bit rich, but it’s hard to find many Steelers defenders who were more impactful than Elliott in 2024. He wasn’t a big-name free agent addition last season, but he sure played like one.
Look, Elliott had some struggles in man coverage last season, exacerbated by a particularly brutal showing in Week 18 against the Bengals, but he filled up the rest of the stat sheet: a career-best 108 total tackles, one interception, six passes defensed, four tackles for loss, two forced fumbles, and three fumble recoveries over his debut year as a Steeler.
And in the box, he was a consistent playmaker, impressing as both a sure tackler and an aggressive enforcer near the line of scrimmage with an 87.8 run defense grade from PFF — elite for a defensive back. Tone-setters like Elliott are a necessity for turning good defenses into great ones.
9. Alex Highsmith, outside linebacker
Photo by Scott Taetsch/Getty Images
RP: The 2024 season is one Highsmith would probably like to forget. Forced to miss six games due to injury, Highsmith played in less than 16 games for the first time in his career. He finished the year with a career-low 45 combined tackles, and his sacks (6.0) and QB hits (13) were at the lowest they’ve been since his rookie season.
With just one season of double-digit sacks to his name (14.5 in 2022), Highsmith may never be an elite pass rusher, but he’s still a pretty damn good one.
Among edge rushers, Highsmith finished right behind Watt for PFF’s seventh-highest pass rush grade — as a fun side note, Nick Herbig finished 4th. That high grade is in large part due to Highsmith’s 35 pressures (31st) and 17.5% pass rush win rate (19th), both ranking near the top of the league for an edge defender, despite all the missed time.
Highsmith’s contributions against the run are equally impactful. Once again, compared against all other edge rushers, Highsmith’s 78.3 PFF grade against the run (13th), 18 stops (T-19th), and 5.3% missed tackle rate (23rd) are all impressive reflections of his standing among the league’s best and most versatile edge defenders. He may be second-fiddle to Watt for Pittsburgh, but Highsmith would be the best player on a lot of NFL defenses.
10. Patrick Queen, linebacker
Photo by Joe Sargent/Getty Images
RB: I had a tough time deciding between Pat Freiermuth and Queen here, but ultimately I went with the Steeler who consistently logged 100% of defensive snaps each game and has a second-team All-Pro under his belt.
Queen got off to a slow start in 2024, not looking like the big-money linebacker the Steelers brought him in to be. But although the Pittsburgh defense had some struggles down the stretch, Queen found his footing as the season progressed.
He’s never going to be the most imposing presence as a run-stopper, with his size preventing him from consistently shedding blocks, but Queen’s range is as-advertised. He’s a hyper-athletic tackling machine who impressed with his fluidity in coverage in the all-22 I reviewed for this article.
Like Payton Wilson, I think Queen should look even better in 2025 behind a revamped Steelers defensive line. 2024 left a bad taste in everyone’s mouths, but if the Steelers defense stays healthy next season, it’s a group worth getting excited about.
Final Teams
Ryan
T.J. Watt
DK Metcalf
Zach Frazier
Joey Porter Jr.
Alex Highsmith
Ryland
Cam Heyward
Chris Boswell
Minkah Fitzpatrick
DeShon Elliott
Patrick Queen
Join in on Steelers R&R by sharing your takes on this week’s topics in the comments. How would you rank the players in our top 10? Do you think another player is more deserving? What are your expectations for Payton Wilson in his second season? Feel free to pitch future questions in the comment section or on Twitter/X: tag @_Ryland_B or @RyanParishMedia, or email us at steelersreadnreact@gmail.com
