Earlier in the offseason, maybe around the start of training camp, Pittsburgh Steelers defensive coordinator Keith Butler talked about wanting to move away from the platooning at the outside linebacker position that they started and relied upon during the 2015 season, basically out of necessity, since there was no individual player who was able to step up and take command of the defense.
The hope was that their two former first-round draft picks—Jarvis Jones in 2013 and Bud Dupree in 2015—would be able to take on the load and see the majority of snaps on the right and left sides of the defense, respectively.