Is there more to the Steelers keeping so many defensive linemen?

When the Steelers released their initial 53-man roster for the 2025 season on Tuesday, there were a few things from a numbers standpoint that were a bit head-scratching. The obvious one was keeping four quarterbacks, although most people realized what the Steelers were trying to do and it would be a very short term situation.

But that was not the only surprising numbers when it came to different position groups. On the defensive side of the ball, the Steelers kept their typical nine linebackers, which sometimes gets divided up differently between inside linebackers and outside linebackers. But the breakdown for the defensive line versus the secondary was very surprising when both groups had the exact same number of eight players.

Keeping eight defensive lineman seems like a lot. Only keeping eight defensive backs doesn’t seem like enough. Do these numbers really make sense?

The reason it’s easy to question this decision is based on how many players from these position groups are on the field at one time. For defensive tackles, the most they have on the field is three with the occasional goal line/short yardage formation which could carry four. But the majority of the time, there’s only two defensive lineman on the field whenever the Steelers are in any sort of sub package, which is about 70% of the time.

And what players generally come on for the sub packages? Defensive backs.

Unless it’s a very atypical situation such as goal line/short yardage, there’s almost always at least four defensive backs on the field at a time. The majority of the time, there’s five and potentially as many as six. So keeping the same number of defensive linemen as defensive backs definitely doesn’t mesh from my number standpoint.

But Is it really that big of a deal?

First, where the Steelers are lacking in numbers on the 53 men roster they have made up for on the practice squad. There is only one defensive lineman on the practice squad if counting DeMarvin Leal as an outside linebacker as that is all he has played this season. As for defensive backs, the Steelers have five of them on the practice squad. Since two players can be called up each week from the practice squad, the Steelers are basically having every player who will get a helmet in the secondary on the 53-man roster. If a player in the secondary is dealing with injury, a practice squad elevation would be likely. As for defensive linemen, there will probably be two on the active roster who are inactive on game days if the Steelers continue to carry eight players.

So why are there eight defensive linemen on the 53-man roster?

This is a very good question. First, I think part of the reason is due to the health of Derrick Harmon to start the season. It is very likely he will miss a minimum of the first game and probably another one or two. Not going on the Reserve/Injured List (IR) is a positive, but it still doesn’t mean he will be available before the Steelers bye week in Week 5. For that reason, it makes sense to have at least one extra defensive lineman on the roster.

Even so, seven could have been enough to cover for Derrick Harmon.

So is there more to it? Is it just that the Steelers didn’t want to potentially lose one of these players? Or is somebody else, such as Keeanu Benton, potentially going to miss time due to injury?

The other elephant in the room is this… Cam Heyward. Although he’s been participating more in practice, at the time of this writing he has not received any adjustment in his salary for the 2025 season. He hinted at it earlier, and even though it has not been in the news as much, would he potentially decide to sit out games? Perhaps the Steelers see this still as a possibility and felt that they should carry an extra defensive lineman just in case.

I’m not saying this is what is happening. I’m just putting it out there as a potential explanation.

If things have you worried now that I mentioned this with Cam Heyward, there is something that might make you feel better…

The Steelers kept eight defensive linemen on the 53-man roster to start the 2024 season.

That’s right, it’s the same number as last year. But what happened in 2024 was a situation where the Steelers entered their first game with only seven players. At the deadline to make roster moves ahead of the game, which is done on Saturday by 4 PM, the Steelers placed Logan Lee on IR last season and were left with seven defensive linemen.

I don’t think anyone’s heading to IR on the defensive line this year, at least at this time. Maybe the Steelers are waiting until the last minute for Derrick Harmon and if they feel he’s not going to make it back before the bye they’ll go ahead and use that spot for him at the last possible moment. Either way, while it is very curious that the Steelers have set up their 2025 roster to start in this manner, it’s not without a reasonable explanation.