Steelers Who Will Benefit From Patrick Graham’s New Defense

Players Who Will Benefit

Jalen Ramsey at Nickel Corner

This is the biggest schematic fit on the roster, and it is not close. Graham has already called Ramsey a “chess piece” and is installing him full-time at the Star position. The nickel role that also functions as the Money linebacker in subpackages. That is not a demotion from boundary corner. It is the opposite.

The Star is where the entire disguise system hinges. Here is why this matters at the schematic level. Graham’s post-snap rotations and coverage disguises only work if he has a defensive back who can line up anywhere; boundary, slot, box, deep safety and rotate post-snap without tipping the coverage. That player has to be credible in every alignment, or the offense can eliminate possibilities based on personnel groupings alone. Ramsey is one of the few players in the NFL who can do all of those things.

In the old man-heavy scheme, that versatility was wasted. He was a corner following a receiver early in the season before changing to saftey basically full time. In Graham’s scheme, Ramsey is the movable piece that makes every disguise credible. He goes from “great corner” to the hinge the whole defense swings on. Graham has said openly that if offenses double Watt, the scheme is designed to give Ramsey a free run at the quarterback from the Star spot. That is how you know the defense is built around him in terms of a mature decision-making and reading process. He is the player whose football IQ unlocks the system.

T.J. Watt: Freed, Not Just Featured

Watt’s sack totals have slid every year: 19, then 11.5, then 7.0. That decline is not about age or effort. It is about scheme and the scheme should not call for a guy to be a superhuman every year. It is not sustainable. The old defense asked him to win on his own against double teams, and when he could not, there was no structural answer. He was the plan, and when the plan failed, nothing replaced it. Graham changes the math.

The simulated pressure packages are the key. If an offense doubles Watt, Graham’s scheme means linemen are blocking air while a nickel or the other edge gets a clean one-on-one. If they do not double him, Watt gets the one-on-one. Either way, the matchup is manufactured instead of left to chance. The defense is also moving Watt across the formation lining him up at different spots along the front so offenses cannot game-plan a single blocking scheme against him. Watt himself has talked about the “freedom” Graham’s system provides. He is 32. He does not need more reps. He needs better reps. That is what manufactured pressure gives him — more production from fewer snaps, because the scheme is doing half the work before he even rushes.

Payton Wilson: In Coverage

This is the cleanest example of a player whose weakness the old scheme exposed and whose strength the new scheme rewards. Wilson’s two-year knock has been pass coverage. In 2025, he allowed completions on over 90 percent of passes thrown his way with a 104.7 passer rating against. His PFF grade dropped from 74.7 as a rookie to 52.6 in year two. That is a real problem, and nobody is pretending otherwise.

But the important detail is why. Wilson’s athletic profile includes range, speed, length which is genuinely rare for a linebacker. The issue has been technique and scheme fit. The old defense asked him to play in man coverage situations where he had to match routes step for step, which is an absolute nightmare and coaching malpractice. Graham’s zone-heavy, fire-zone approach plays to a different skill set. In a fire-zone blitz, the inside linebacker drops into a zone rather than matching a man. That rewards instincts and range, not man-coverage technique. Wilson has both.

The early camp returns back this up. Wilson has talked about how Graham has removed the “fear of failure” and encouraged him to play aggressively. He intercepted a pass on the first day of camp. The coaches describe him as finally being able to “fly around” without overthinking assignments. That is what a scheme change is supposed to do, stop punishing a player for the thing he is not and start rewarding him for the thing he is.

Nick Herbig: More Snaps by Design

Herbig signed a four-year, $100 million extension in June. That is not rotational money. That is the franchise telling you they believe he is a foundational piece. Graham’s scheme backs up the investment. The old defense had a fixed rotation, Watt and Alex Highsmith on the edges, Herbig spelling them. Graham’s system uses multiple-pass-rusher packages that put all three on the field simultaneously.

The 2-4-5 nickel look, the hybrid fronts, the off-ball alignments for edge rushers. All of it is structurally designed to get Herbig more snaps without taking anyone else off the field. He is not replacing Watt. He is playing alongside him, from different spots, in packages that are specifically built to create confusion about who is rushing and who is dropping. That is the path from $100 million investment to $100 million production.

Jaquan Brisker: The Box Safety Graham Wants

Brisker signed a one-year, $5.5 million deal in March, and his skill set is exactly what Graham’s scheme needs at safety. Graham leans on safeties who can play near the line of scrimmage, disguise the middle of the field pre-snap, and blitz from the secondary.

Brisker has done all three throughout his career. In four NFL seasons, he has recorded 342 total tackles, seven sacks, four interceptions, and four forced fumbles. Those are box-safety numbers from a player who is comfortable attacking the line of scrimmage. The question mark is the deep third. Brisker is not a pure free safety, and Graham’s scheme will occasionally ask him to rotate post-snap into coverage responsibilities that test his range. But the system is designed to keep him doing what he does best more often than it asks him to do what he does not. That is the whole point. A scheme that fits the player, not the other way around.

The Zone-Fit Corners

This is the quieter benefit, but it is real and it matters for the whole secondary. Asante Samuel is a technique-first corner who wins with timing, route recognition, and efficient movement rather than brute force. That is a zone corner’s skill set. In the old man-heavy scheme, a corner built like that gets exposed against physical receivers who can bully him at the line.

In Graham’s Cover 3-heavy system, route recognition and discipline are the currency.

McCarthy has specifically highlighted Samuel’s “position-flexibility”, his ability to play both boundary and slot and camp reports have him as one of the clear winners of the summer. The same logic applies to Daylen Everette and the rest of a young, developing corner room. Zone protects technique corners. Man punishes them. The scheme change is a structural upgrade for the entire position group. If you watched the preseason opener against Green Bay, Samuel and Everette both showed exactly the kind of discipline that translates into zone coverage staying in phase, attacking the throw point, tackling in space. That evidence is early, but it is real.