{"id":117770,"date":"2025-08-04T08:48:11","date_gmt":"2025-08-04T08:48:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/117770\/"},"modified":"2025-08-04T08:48:11","modified_gmt":"2025-08-04T08:48:11","slug":"dk-metcalf-thinks-steelers-defense-is-the-best-hes-ever-seen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/117770\/","title":{"rendered":"DK Metcalf Thinks Steelers’ Defense Is The Best He’s ‘Ever Seen’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Since Ben Roethlisberger retired, the Pittsburgh Steelers\u2019 offensive struggles are well-known. However, they\u2019ve still made the playoffs in four of the last five years, in large part thanks to their defense. While that unit had some issues at the end of the 2024 season, the Steelers made some dramatic changes this offseason, with some thinking it could be one of the best<\/a> defenses in the league. That\u2019s an opinion DK Metcalf would agree with.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think they the best defense I done ever seen,\u201d Metcalf said Sunday after practice on NFL Network\u2019s Inside Training Camp Live<\/a>. \u201cYeah, there\u2019s some dawgs everywhere on the field. And I tip my hat to \u2019em, \u2019cause they come to work every day, and you know, we don\u2019t have any choice but to get better.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pittsburgh\u2019s defense was able to help the team clinch a playoff berth last year, but it really started to struggle toward the end of the season. Against the run, the Steelers were extremely poor and bottomed out when they allowed the Baltimore Ravens to run all over them in their playoff loss. Most of those issues came along the defensive line, where the Steelers weren\u2019t able to set the tone as they hoped.<\/p>\n

Now, there\u2019s plenty of new faces there. First-round pick Derrick Harmon is set to assume a starting role. He should give some immediate help against the run. Yahya Black and his massive, hard-to-move frame will offer help in that area as well. And even though the Steelers are already stout on the edge, they secured that pipeline even more by adding Jack Sawyer. Of course, all those players need to develop well for those additions to mean anything. Still, there\u2019s much more optimism regarding the unit now compared to last year.<\/p>\n

Aside from just filling their weaknesses<\/a>, there are some real strengths on the Steelers\u2019 defense, too. The first one that jumps out is at cornerback. With a starting trio of Jalen Ramsey, Darius Slay and Joey Porter Jr. it\u2019s a position that should scare opposing offenses. There\u2019s some good depth behind those three as well. At safety and linebacker Pittsburgh is counting on big contributions from players like Juan Thornhill, Chuck Clark and Payton Wilson. Those are more of a gamble, but it\u2019s reasonable to expect all to have some measure of success.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s some high praise from Metcalf. He saw some talented defenses in Seattle and has seen just about every defense in the league throughout his career. However, Pittsburgh\u2019s performances through training camp are backing his claim up.<\/p>\n

Whether it\u2019s a sign of a good defense or a bad offense, the Steelers\u2019 defense is getting the better of the offense throughout training camp. It\u2019s a unit with a ton of talent, and one that\u2019s mixing things up<\/a> much more than it has before. So far, Metcalf and the rest of the offense are impressed with what they\u2019re seeing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Since Ben Roethlisberger retired, the Pittsburgh Steelers\u2019 offensive struggles are well-known. However, they\u2019ve still made the playoffs in…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":117771,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[55799,52867,73633,1232,59920,62,939,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-117770","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nfl","8":"tag-2025-training-camp","9":"tag-dk-metcalf","10":"tag-inside-training-camp-live","11":"tag-nfl","12":"tag-nfl-network","13":"tag-sports","14":"tag-trending","15":"tag-united-states","16":"tag-unitedstates","17":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114969634674450086","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117770","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=117770"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117770\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/117771"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=117770"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=117770"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=117770"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}