If the Pittsburgh Steelers are going to return to prominence in 2019, it will be on the back of their defense. Even without wide receiver Antonio Brown, the offense is going to find ways to put up points. It will instead be all about the talented young defenders on this team taking that next step. And according to Pro Football Focus, three of them did in the second half of last season.
According to PFF, linebacker T.J. Watt, defensive tackle Javon Hargrave and safety Terrell Edmunds all made big jumps in the second half of the 2018 season based on their grades.
Looking ahead to 2019, who are the guys we want to see similar jumps? The two names that come to mind are linebacker Bud Dupree and safety Sean Davis.
Dupree was supposed to be great. He was a first-round pick and an off-the-charts athlete at Kentucky. However, his production has never matched the hype. For Davis, it’s a different story. Count me among those who think Davis is better than his 69.8 grade in 2018. The problem is Davis was terribly inconsistent. His production was very up and down all season which led to a lower grade. If he can put together far more good games than bad, he should see a huge spike in production.
