{"id":60926,"date":"2026-09-03T22:13:08","date_gmt":"2026-09-03T22:13:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/60926\/"},"modified":"2026-09-03T22:13:08","modified_gmt":"2026-09-03T22:13:08","slug":"steelers-lb-payton-wilson-takes-jab-at-previous-coaching-staff","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/60926\/","title":{"rendered":"Steelers LB Payton Wilson takes jab at previous coaching staff"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Pittsburgh Steelers defense will look much different in 2026. Pittsburgh\u2019s defensive unit was the highest-paid defense in the entire league in 2025, but finished 26th in total defense<\/a>. Under new defensive coordinator Patrick Graham and key additions like Jamel Dean and Jaquan Brisker, there is plenty of reason to be optimistic about the direction of the Steelers defense this season.<\/p>\n

Some players like third-year linebacker Payton Wilson believe that the new defense will allow him to play more freely. During his appearance on Cam Heyward\u2019s \u201cNot Just Football\u201d Podcast<\/a>, the Steelers linebacker did not mince words when talking about the shift in his mentality this season.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were really tight as a linebacker unit, and they kind of empowered me in a sense to just go to play,\u201d Wilson said. \u201cAnd then just [Patrick Graham], his schematics, the way he coaches it. I\u2019m finally just getting back to playing ball, rather than \u2018Hey, if you make a mistake they might take you out.\u2019 Or \u2018Hey, if you do this wrong, you might come out of the game,\u2019 and you don\u2019t know when you\u2019re coming back. Not to say I\u2019m going to make mistakes all the time, but now it\u2019s just playing ball and it kind of feels like my last few years of college again. It\u2019s slowed down a lot and I\u2019m just excited to be back out there rather than I guess nervous, not nervous but just anxious.\u201d<\/p>\n

Without explicitly saying it, Wilson seems to be calling out Teryl Austin and Mike Tomlin\u2019s coaching during his first several years in the league. It sounds like Wilson won\u2019t be nitpicked for his mistakes as much this season and will be able to learn on the fly, something that he is suggesting may not have been possible under the former regime.<\/p>\n

Wilson totaled 79 tackles and nabbing an interception in his second year in the league. The Steelers\u2019 inside linebacker room will look largely the same in 2026, allowing Wilson to continue to grow as a key piece of the Pittsburgh defense and into a more confident player overall.<\/p>\n

Let us know what you think in the comments. Be sure to bookmark Behind the Steel Curtain for all the latest news, breakdowns, and more!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Pittsburgh Steelers defense will look much different in 2026. Pittsburgh\u2019s defensive unit was the highest-paid defense in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":60927,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3029],"tags":[22684,22685,3151],"class_list":["post-60926","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wilson-golf","tag-pittsburgh-steelers-coaching-staff","tag-pittsburgh-steelers-news","tag-wilson-golf"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60926","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=60926"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60926\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/60927"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=60926"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=60926"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=60926"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}