Something is happening in the Steelers defense that has not been seen in 45 years, and they can only hope it continues the way it did back in 1971.
Rookies Artie Burns, Sean Davis and Javon Hargrave have all won starting jobs on defense. The last time that happened with a rookie trio, the Steel Curtain defense was being formed. Rookies Jack Ham, Mike Wagner and Dwight White all won starting jobs in 1971.
While it took three more years for the Steelers to win their first Super Bowl, that defense came together quickly; they helped win the franchise’s first playoff game the following season.
This Steelers defense may take longer to jell and it likely will not reach the prominence of the famed Steel Curtain, but the three rookies are helping win games now.
“I feel like we have a part in upholding the standard,”Davis said. “… I just want to continue to build here on out.”
The trio represents a concerted effort to rebuild what was one of the NFL’s best defenses in the first decade of this century. The three were the top draft choices in the Steelers’ 2016 draft class — cornerback Burns in the first round, safety Davis in the second and defensive lineman Hargrave in the third.
“When I’m in that defensive huddle and I see three rookies out there, there’s nothing but a big smile on my face,” Davis said.
“I really do like that. It’s special to me. I really care about those guys. When we’re out there, I never really had that feeling before. Those are my bros.”
Hargrave won the starting nose tackle job in the preseason and his nine starts are more than the other two. He also has played at end.
Davis actually was their only rookie starter in the opener at Washington; he played the slot cornerback when they started their nickel defense in that game (and thus no Hargrave start). Davis continued in that role until Burns was healthy and deemed ready. He has since won the starting job at strong safety and has four starts total after he was slowed early-on by a back injury.
Burns’ preseason quad injury also set him back. But after breaking in with the nickel defense he became the starting left cornerback four games ago. He leads them with two interceptions and is second with nine pass breakups.
“We’re both learning as we go along in the season. It just takes time,” Burns said of the rookies in the secondary. “He’s doing a real good job. Big J. Wobble [Hargrave’s nickname] is making some plays out there … He’s bouncing around and stuff like that.”
The greatest draft in NFL history did not have three rookie starters. Jack Lambert was the only rookie to nail down a starting job in 1974 while fellow Pro Football Hall of Famers Lynn Swann, John Stallworth and Mike Webster had to wait; none of those three started a game as a rookie.
Multiple rookies started in the same season for the Steelers through the years, but not all as regulars or all for more than a few games.
Ryan Shazier and Stephon Tuitt earned starting jobs as rookies but combined for just nine starts in 2014. Linebacker Vince Williams started 11 games as a rookie in 2013 because of an injury to Larry Foote. That same season, fellow rookies Jarvis Jones started eight games, and Shamarko Thomas started two but they came in the nickel defense and he never did win a starting job.
After that, you have to go back to 2001 when two rookies earned starting jobs: linebacker Kendrell Bell and nose tackle Casey Hampton.
In 1989, safety Carnell Lake started 15 games and linebacker Jerry Olsavsky eight, but Olsavsky’s came because of an injury. Defensive backs Delton Hall and Thomas Everett both started in 1987 — the last time two rookie defensive backs earned starting jobs, until now. Another DB, first-rounder Rod Woodson, who would go on to the Pro Football Hall of Fame, did not start a game in 1987 after he held out until late October.
Let’s everyone … quiet down?
Mike Tomlin’s call for the Heinz Field crowd to make noise to try to disrupt the Giants when they have the ball brings to mind a time when Chuck Noll urged the crowd to do just the opposite — to quiet down when the opponent was on offense.
At least once during a game at Three Rivers Stadium, the revved up crowd grew loud when an opponent had the ball. On the sideline, Noll waved his arms up and down to try to quiet the fans. It seems quaint now, but that was how Noll operated, with a sense of sportsmanship.
In the NFL Films “Chuck Noll, A Football Life” that debuted last week on the NFL Network, Tunch Ilkin told a story of how someone found a Houston Oilers playbook laying around after the two teams played at Three Rivers Stadium and gave it to Noll. The two division rivals were to meet later in the season so that book should have had some value to the Steelers.
Noll addressed the team, showed them the book and dropped it into the trash can. He said it did not matter whether they knew what the other team would do, it mattered more how his own team would play.
In that NFL Films story on Noll, you can see him shake hands in his final game as coach of the Steelers with the losing coach of the Browns, Bill Belichick, wearing an orange sweater.
First Published: December 4, 2016, 5:38 a.m.
