Steelers’ Defensive Goldmine: Jack Sawyer and YA Black Are Turning Into Legit Monsters
Pittsburgh Didn’t Just Add Depth — It Found Difference-Makers
The Pittsburgh Steelers have built their modern identity on pass rush, violence at the point of attack, and a defense that can carry games when the offense is still searching for rhythm. That formula has produced playoff seasons, division titles, and a reputation that never really changes: if you’re playing the Steelers, you’re going to feel them.
Now, Pittsburgh may have uncovered the next wave.
In recent film, two names have started to pop with the kind of frequency that forces opponents to adjust protections and reroute game plans: edge defender Jack Sawyer and interior force YA Black. The buzz isn’t just about hustle plays or one flashy rep. It’s about repeatable traits — leverage, timing, balance, and a clear understanding of how to turn offensive rules into defensive advantages. Add Derek Harmon to the mix, and the Steelers’ front is starting to look less like a unit that’s “good enough” and more like one that can overwhelm teams for four quarters.
This is how Pittsburgh “stumbled” into something bigger than rotational depth: they found two defenders who play like problems.
Jack Sawyer’s Calling Card: Turning Offensive Help Into a Trap
Sawyer’s most impressive snaps aren’t the obvious ones where he simply beats a tackle in space. They’re the reps where the offense tries to help — with motion, with a chip, with slide protection — and he still creates disruption by manipulating leverage and attacking the soft spot that protection rules can’t fully cover.
On one early rep, Sawyer aligns in a wide five technique on the outside shoulder of the tackle. The offense adds pre-snap “eye candy” motion, then tries a chip-and-release to slow him down. Many edge defenders respond by widening and racing to the corner, especially when they feel contact coming.
Sawyer does the opposite. He uses the expectation against the blocker.
His first step threatens the tackle’s outside shoulder, forcing the tackle to shift weight and commit. That small detail matters because it creates the window Sawyer actually wants: the inside lane. With the protection sliding away and no immediate help in the B-gap area, Sawyer gets low, rips through, and forces the quarterback off rhythm — the kind of pressure that doesn’t always show as a sack but absolutely shows up in incompletions, early throws, and an offense that stops trusting its timing.
That’s veteran work from a player who’s trending toward more than “nice contributor.”
The Four-Pressure Game: Why It’s More Than a Box Score Note
A stat like “four pressures” can be misleading in either direction. Sometimes it’s inflated by clean-up rushes. Sometimes it underrates the player because the quarterback got rid of the ball early.
Sawyer’s pressures in this film study matter because they come in multiple ways:
Inside counter after threatening the edge
Stunt/slide alignment that creates a B-gap runway
Read-and-react discipline against boot action
Pure speed-to-power quickness that collapses the corner
That variety is what turns a rusher into a weekly problem. Tackles can survive a one-note edge threat. They struggle with a rusher who can win with pace, angle, and an understanding of how protection systems declare responsibility.
Pittsburgh has long thrived with rushers who don’t just “go” — they diagnose.
The Stunt That Opened the Door: How Pittsburgh Manufactured a Free Lane
One of the cleanest examples of scheme meeting execution shows Sawyer sliding inside while pressure is presented to the guard. The concept is simple: make the guard commit, then hit the space he just vacated.
Pittsburgh aligns in a way that encourages a scat/slide protection look, then initiates action that forces the guard’s eyes and feet to travel the wrong direction. That momentary shift is enough. Sawyer hits the crease through the B gap with speed, and the quarterback is forced to unload the ball before the route develops.
This is exactly how pressure is supposed to work in today’s NFL. It’s not always about beating a man; it’s about beating the math. If the offense slides help one way, you attack the responsibility conflict that appears elsewhere. Sawyer’s timing on the entry is the difference between “almost” pressure and real disruption.
Pittsburgh has run stunts for decades. The encouraging sign is that Sawyer looks like a defender who understands why the stunt exists — not just where to run.
The Boot Action Rep: Discipline That Separates Pros From Highlights
Some pass rushers are built to chase the quarterback. Others are built to shrink the quarterback’s options. Against bootleg action, the second type is far more valuable.
On a key rep with Sawyer aligned in a wide nine outside the tight end, the offense sells run action and tries to boot the quarterback to the defense’s left. Sawyer’s first movement hints at collapsing down — but he doesn’t overcommit. The moment the ball comes back, he redirects, gets width, and turns himself into a moving wall in the throwing lanes.
The end result is not just “pressure.” It’s coverage integrity created by the rush. The quarterback looks up and sees no clean window: the flat is squeezed, the intermediate lane is capped, and the deep option is protected by leverage and safety help. The quarterback ends up throwing the only thing available — an outside shot that isn’t there — and the play dies.
Those are the reps that win playoff games. Not the ones that look good on social media — the ones that erase the quarterback’s answers.
YA Black, the Nose Tackle Who Doesn’t Move Like He’s Supposed To
If Sawyer is the chess piece creating havoc off the edge and through stunts, YA Black is the anchor who makes everything else possible.
Pittsburgh uses him in a zero technique head up on the center, a role that demands both strength and awareness. In that alignment, the job is brutal: control the center, protect both A gaps, and survive help from guards who are looking to knock you off your spot.
Black doesn’t just survive it. He wins it.
The defining trait in the film is his contact balance. On one snap, he initiates contact, then absorbs a guard arriving with a hip check — a shot designed to displace his center of gravity and put him on the ground. Most interior defenders lose the rep right there.
Black stays up.
Not only does he stay upright, he resets his base, fills the gap, and stonewalls the run for no gain. That’s the kind of play that changes an offense’s call sheet. When your interior run game can’t dent a nose tackle lined up directly over your center, the entire structure of your offense becomes fragile. You become predictable. You become one-dimensional. And against Pittsburgh, one-dimensional is another word for doomed.
The Motor Play: When a Big Body Makes a “Skill Position” Tackle
Interior linemen aren’t supposed to run down plays 15 to 20 yards downfield. That’s not laziness — it’s physics. But every defense has a handful of snaps each season where effort turns into points saved.
Black delivered one of those moments on a quick screen to the perimeter. He reads, reacts, and chases with the urgency of a linebacker, tracking the play deep into the downfield space where most defensive tackles are no longer factors.
He makes the tackle near the goal-to-go area, preventing what easily could have become a touchdown with one missed angle by a defensive back. That’s not just “nice hustle.” That’s a hidden swing in win probability. Those plays don’t show up in fantasy football, but they show up in film rooms — and in coaches’ trust.
In Pittsburgh, trust earns snaps. Snaps earn development. Development earns problems for the rest of the league.
Derek Harmon’s Role: The Known Commodity Who Makes the New Guys Scarier
Harmon was already viewed as a player who would matter. The film confirms it: he’s disruptive, he commands attention, and he has the physical profile to collapse pockets and muddy run lanes.
But what changes Pittsburgh’s ceiling is what happens when the offense can’t simply slide protection toward the “obvious” threat. If Sawyer is winning one-on-ones on the edge and Black is eliminating interior movement, Harmon’s presence becomes the multiplier. Offenses can’t double everybody. They can’t “help” every gap. They can’t play slow and still protect the quarterback.
That’s the entire Steelers formula, updated: make the offense pick its poison — then punish the choice.
Why This Matters in Pittsburgh: Waves of Pressure, Not One-Star Dependency
The Steelers already have a reputation for producing pressure from multiple spots — and traditionally, a defense like this becomes most dangerous late in games, when pass sets get desperate and the quarterback starts holding the ball to chase points.
Sawyer and Black strengthen the most important part of that identity: the ability to attack without needing perfect circumstances. You don’t have to blitz yourself into vulnerability if your front four can win. You don’t have to live on turnovers if you can consistently force third-and-long. You don’t have to be flawless on the back end if the quarterback doesn’t have time to see routes develop.
That’s how defenses travel in January.
The Big Picture: Pittsburgh Might Have Found Its Next Defensive Core
Projecting defenders is risky, especially off a small cluster of games. But the traits on display — Sawyer’s leverage manipulation and multi-path rush plan, Black’s balance and two-gap sturdiness, Harmon’s disruptive baseline — are not fluky traits. They’re foundational skills that scale up against better opponents.
If Pittsburgh is right about these two emerging pieces, the Steelers won’t just “have a good defense.” They’ll have a defense that can dictate matchups, force offenses out of their comfort calls, and win games when the margin is thin.
And that’s what “two monsters” really means in Pittsburgh: not hype, not highlights — but problems that offenses can’t solve for 60 minutes.
If you want, I can rewrite this into a more ESPN “game recap + film room” hybrid with a stronger news hook (opponent, score, and key drives) if you tell me which Steelers game this film was from.
