During their annual end-of-the-season talks with the local media, both Pittsburgh Steelers team president Art Rooney II and general manager Kevin Colbert made sure to point out how the team’s run defense needs to improve in 2018. None of that was surprising, nor was the fact that Colbert was careful not to put all of the run defense problems last season on inside linebacker Ryan Shazier going down injured in Week 13.
While Colbert was wise not to put all of the blame for the Steelers poor run defense last season on Shazier going down injured, it’s worth noting how bad that unit was against the rush after he suffered the injury to his spine.