The Pittsburgh Steelers are only five games into the 2018 regular season, but they have already played nine different defensive backs on defense for a relatively extended period of time, out of a total of 12, and that includes one that has already been put on injured reserve.
Some of those opportunities were created by injury. Some of them developed as a result of poor performance. Others were created just because the Steelers wanted to utilize the talent that they have available to them—though communication problems have made the group look worse than necessary.
“We’re getting a chance to play a lot of people, but I think those are some of the challenges and opportunities that today’s NFL gives us, and defensive backs particularly”, Head Coach Mike Tomlin said on Tuesday during his weekly press conference, “because on possession downs, there’s a lot of those guys employed in different ways in today’s NFL”.