The defense may not have been good last year, but the change from Dick LeBeau to Keith Butler at defensive coordinator for the Steelers won’t lead to radical changes in scheme during the 2015 season.
Butler spent a long time as an assistant on LeBeau’s staff and things will bear a great resemblance to what the Steelers have been doing for many years. While there won’t be an overhaul, Butler did promise some things “we haven’t done before” in his first meeting with the media since his promotion. Those things weren’t catalogued outside of a change in responsibilities along the defensive line.
Steelers linemen have generally existed to occupy opposing blockers so that linebackers can make plays, but Butler is looking for a bit more from Cam Heyward, Stephon Tuitt and others on the line.
“Those guys are talented,” Butler said, via the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. “We will use them, too. We can’t let them always take up for the linebackers or try to take people on for the linebackers. We have to let them play football, too. Hopefully, we can employ everybody in this defense, especially the front seven.”
There are a lot of unknowns on defense in Pittsburgh with all the new arrivals on the roster over the last few seasons and the way they fill in those blanks will likely have more to do with the chances of improvement than any schematic tweaks Butler might make in the coming months.