Former Steelers OG Ramon Foster Says Stop Saying Cornerback At 17 When They Are Weak At An Essential Area

The Pittsburgh Steelers made substantial improvements during the 2022 season, however, there is still work to be done heading into the 2023 season. One of the biggest areas of need is still strengthening the run defense. 

Last season, the Steelers had a rocky start on both sides of the ball. There was a new quarterback, a change in wide receivers, and a major injury to T.J. Watt. While the defense as a whole improved substantially, including against the run, it was far from satisfactory. 

Steelers' Biggest Area Of Need Is Run Defense

Former Steelers offensive guard, Ramon Foster, addressed this during a recent episode of his podcast. The Ramon Foster Show, which airs via DK Pittsburgh Sports, discussed a variety of Steelers-related topics, and recently, of course, a lot has been talk of the upcoming NFL Draft.  

Foster and his co-host Dejan Kovacevic, spoke about the weaknesses against the run on the show. Joey Porter Jr., a cornerback out of Penn State, whose father played for the Steelers, comes up quite often as an ideal pick in the first round, but Foster disagrees.  

"A lot of people are going to point to the cornerback position, and I love that JPJ, Joey Porter Jr. is coming out. The real position of concern for me, truthfully, is depth amongst the d-line and the ability to stop the run. That's my biggest concern for this team moving forward."

Kovacevic agrees and thinks that Foster is right to put it down as an area of need versus focusing on a single position. 

"They added a couple of inside linebackers, who are seen by most people as a being a step up. Elandon Roberts and Cole Holcomb, both of them coming in are better than Robert Spillane. They're more durable than Myles Jack and they're probably all over everything over whatever Devin Bush left like. So what you have is between the D-line and the ILB's a genuine concern as to how to stop the run. And how many other people will Mike Tomlin and Teryl Austin need to get involved in that process because that'll only further weaken your defense."  

Foster feels that the over-involvement of all defensive personnel to compensate for weaknesses is part of what went wrong against the run last season. We just didn't have the right people, doing the right jobs to be able to stop it and our opponents knew it.     

"If you got to sell out everybody, you become so exposed on the back end to chunk plays," says Foster. "Honestly, one person being out of their spot in the run gaps, if a DB decides, 'Man, I don't want to, I want to use the path of least resistance' and they move outside of their gap or as Coach Tomlin likes to say, 'You trade a block for a block,' like no, we're not trading blocks for blocks."

"What I need to happen is one thing that Casey Hampton did big time, Brett Keisel was really good at this, Cam (Heyward) is really good at it, although he needs some help amongst that defensive line, you got to be able to stop those big boys up front. Truthfully for about the last couple of years, that's been an area of concern - whether it stretches throughout the season or just in general. It's fair to say the run defense, without blitzing, has been an issue."  

According to Kovacevic, he just doesn't see any recent changes to the roster that solve that problem. They both agree that the defense did get better against the run as the season went on. Kovacevic points out that despite winning the game, the Atlanta Falcons "gashed" our defense by running the ball repeatedly. We won the game, but couldn't stop their run. That allows other teams to form a blueprint for how to beat us. Foster says that is concerning considering our 2023 opponents. 

"I just want to look at the opponents for next year, we talk about the passing game as much as we want, it is a passing league. But any coach in the NFL will tell you the passing game is only good because you have a good running game. The way I look at the schedule for next year - (Nick) Chubb is still in Cleveland, Joe Mixon is in Cincinnati, Baltimore is predominantly a run-first team, you got a running quarterback in Kyler Murray, Aaron Rodgers may be leaving Green Bay, so that probably puts more emphasis on their run game, the Jags have a solid run game, the Patriots are a death by a thousand cuts the way they attack you. What I am saying is you're facing some opponents in this 2023 season and they will want to establish the run."      

We will find out soon if the Steelers address the defensive line in the upcoming draft. Based on their free agency moves, including the signing of several offensive players, it seems fair to predict that this will be a defense-heavy draft. 

What do you think about what Foster and Kovacevic said? Do you think the Steelers will draft a defensive lineman at 17? If not, who or what position do you think they will take? What do you see as our biggest area of need? Click to comment below.

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