The Pittsburgh Steelers came into the 2020 NFL Draft needing, potentially, a starting defensive tackle for their 3-4 front. They didn’t take a defensive lineman until the seventh round, and when they did, they took an athletic, developmental prospect, which perhaps tells you everything you need to know about how they view the 3-4 nose tackle in today’s game.
“A traditional 3-4 nose tackle”, Steelers general manager Kevin Colbert began during the team’s post-draft press conference, “I don’t want to say it’s dying, but it’s less and less of base defense. When you’re in a defense 75 percent of the time, different sub-packages, I don’t know if anyone really has a base defense even though you do say you’re a 3-4”.