The Pittsburgh Steelers were on a mission to revamp their inside linebacker situation in the 2023 offseason. Only one player from the 2022 roster remained, that guy being Mark Robinson. General Manager Omar Khan was a busy man and went out to get Cole Holcomb, Elandon Roberts and Kwon Alexander. They have quietly been one of the best parts of the Steelers in 2023, but took a huge blow on Thursday Night Football after Holcomb went down with a serious knee injury. He will miss the rest of the season with a torn ACL, which is a major loss as he wore the green dot on defense.
The Steelers are now extremely thin at the inside linebacker spot with Chapelle Russell on Injured Reserve and Holcomb joining him. That leaves a wide open window for Pittsburgh to elevate someone from the practice squad or bring someone in from the outside. Roberts and Alexander will be asked to do a lot moving forward, but the 2022 seventh-round pick in Robinson is going to start seeing significant playing time.
Robinson burst onto the seen in 2022 because of his ability to fly around the field and hit extremely hard. He was looked at as extremely raw and in year two, is still developing and getting used to the linebacker position. He has shown flashes of having serious potential, but struggled when asked to cover receivers and tight ends, something the Steelers love to incorporate in their defense.
Robinson has played in 12 total games since being drafted and started two games. He has 14 total tackles, but nothing else necessarily pops out when you look at his career numbers. He can be looked at as an underrated piece of the unit, and it has to have helped him playing behind and with a strong trio in Holcomb, Roberts and Alexander.
Robinson had a unique college career that took him to three different schools. He began as Presbyterian College before transferring to Southeast Missouri. His football career really did a complete 180 when he was used to playing running back, but then went to Ole Miss for his final collegiate season. The Rebels transitioned him to the linebacker position, which is where he showed great potential, but is still going through growing pains during his second NFL campaign.
Pittsburgh has consistently been using a three-man rotation for the majority of the 2023 season and it will be interesting to see if the coaching staff trusts Robinson enough at this point to give him a significant number of snaps as the year progresses. None of the linebackers ahead of him, including Roberts, have played less than 39 percent of the snaps in 2023.
The second-year player has played less than one percent of defensive snaps in his sophomore year and is an extremely productive member of the special teams unit, appearing on nearly 70 percent of snaps in the third phase of the game. For reference, he was on the field for just above four percent of plays on the defensive side during his rookie year in 2022. This could be a massive change of utilization for the hard-hitting linebacker.
Steelers Need Several Players To Step Up With Holcomb Sidelined
Replacing Holcomb is going to be no easy task for Pittsburgh. Robinson is going to have to step up and contribute on the defensive side while Alexander and Roberts will be asked to do much more than they expected prior to Week 9. A practice squad guy to keep a look out for is recently signed, Mykal Walker. He was brought in just prior to Halloween and has 49 games of NFL experience in just three seasons.
How do you want to see the Steelers try and replace Holcomb?
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