The Pittsburgh Steelers have made enormous investments on the defensive side of the ball for the better part of the past decade. Really, up until last season, it hadn’t necessarily panned out. There were some busts and other complications along the way—Ryan Shazier’s injury was a major setback—but things seemed to be coming together in 2019.
That is following seven straight years of using their first-round pick on defensive players, and acquiring another first-round defender by trading their 2020 first-round pick. From Devin Bush and Minkah Fitzpatrick and Terrell Edmunds to T.