I agree Slash. I'm starting to think about this team's run, and health is going to be very important to maintain this level of defensive play. This team will be less dominant if any of the starters or Hilton is injured. The only players we can continue to maintain without for a significant amount of time would be Mitchell, Williams (though I love his improvement), Watt/Bud (Because we have good depth at OLB).
This is a defense of fast, athletic difference makers. This team stopped drafting college standouts, and started drafting athletes, and it's starting to show up on the field now. Shazier is a freak, no one plays LB at that size and can run a 4.4 40. Sean Davis, is rangy and is settling into this defense. Burns is already outperforming the most optimistic of expectations, Watt and Bud are quick, strong, and athletic. And the front 3 are all disruptive with speed, quickness, power, and technique. This D is sooo fun to watch, it's like watching the great Steeler D with Pola, Ike, Woodley, Potsie, Harrison, Porter, Hampton, Keisel, Clark, and Smith. That D was an all time great group of defenders. I aside from Polamalu (and maybe Ike), I think this new group is more athletic than the previous #1 D we had.
I will say, I hated the Jarvis Jones pick, like most everyone else here. But if we learned one thing from that draft, it was that we needed to draft athletes, and ever since that pick, I think the Steelers have done a much better job of recognizing that.
