For many of you the answer to this will be James Washington or Terrell Edmunds, but there is one player who has been forgotten about this offseason, Tyler Matakevich. Most fans will remember the awful job Sean Spence did while filling in for Ryan Shazier and blame the front office for not having a strong insurance policy on the roster at inside linebacker. Those are the same fans who forgot Matakevich was injured in the exact same quarter as Shazier. In the 9 minutes of game time Matakevich received in that game before being injured himself, he made a total of 6 tackles and played very good in coverage with one pass deflection, making himself look like a very solid replacement.
Tyler was a 7th round pick in the 2016 NFL Draft. During his short time in the NFL he has become a very good special teams player much like we saw with Vince Williams during the beginning stages of his career. Williams showed us last season that he has immense upside after taking over for Lawrence Timmons. I believe Matakevich may follow the same path as Williams did and become the starter right alongside him this season. To do this he will have to beat out newly signed Jon Bostic, who is coming off of a great season as the Colts leading tackler. Expect to see a battle for the starting spot at inside linebacker in the preseason and into the beginning weeks of the regular season. The Pittsburgh Steelers have more depth at Inside Linebacker than the average fan is aware of and do not be surprised if they sign another lower level free agent to spice up the battle at the position.
