Struggling defense now a major problem for Steelers

Before the 2025 season began, Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin talked about his defense potentially doing historic things. If that was the expectation, they have failed spectacularly through the first two weeks of the season.

The Steelers defense was shredded for the second week in a row in Sunday's 31-17 loss to the Seattle Seahawks, allowing 30-plus points for the second consecutive week.

That's bad. But it's only scratching the surface of what is now an unexpected problem for the Steelers.

Pittsburgh Steelers' defensive struggles began last year

The two sub-par performances this season are just a continuation of the way the Steelers ended the 2024 season.

If you go back over the Steelers' past 10 games, including the final eight of last season, the Steelers are allowing 28 points per game and have been unable to consistently make stops. They were bullied in their playoff loss to the Baltimore Ravens, allowed 32 points to a Justin Fields-led offense in Week 1 this season and followed that up by allowing 400 yards and 31 points to a Sam Darnold-led offense in Week 2 — though, to be fair, seven of those points were special-teams points.

What makes the first two games this season concerning is neither offense is among the NFL's best, and neither quarterback is one of the NFL's elites. The Steelers defense used to dominate those teams and the second- and third-tier quarterbacks before getting exposed by headlining signal-callers like Patrick Mahomes and Josh Allen. Now, Fields and Darnold are exploiting them. 

Injuries are a problem but can't be an excuse

The Steelers defense is dealing with significant injuries, including to starters like cornerback Joey Porter Jr., safety DeShon Elliott, linebacker Alex Highsmith and first-round defensive tackle Derrick Harmon. That has certainly caused some problems with depth. 

But that is also no excuse for the way the team has played over what is now a rather extended sampling of games going back to the 2024 season, especially when that defense still has players like linebacker T.J. Watt, defensive tackle Cam Heyward, cornerback Jalen Ramsey, linebacker Patrick Queen and cornerback Darius Slay. 

While Ramsey has made a handful of big plays so far this season, he has been the only player that has really made any significant splash plays. Watt, for example, has not recorded a sack in six consecutive games. 

The Steelers are set up to win tight, low-scoring games with strong defense and a running game. For a few years, they have been somewhat successful with that recipe, consistently winning 10 games and making the playoffs despite bad quarterback play. The recipe does not work if the defense is getting cooked by quarterbacks like Fields and Darnold. 

The offense was not good on Sunday, but that should not be a huge surprise. The defense being so bad is a huge surprise, and it's a huge concern.