For most of the regular season, the Pittsburgh Steelers with five outside linebackers on the 53-man roster—in fact, they carried 10 linebackers in total, and, by the end of the season 11. And unlike in the past, where they were satisfied to have two thoroughbred players that can rack up the snaps, the coaching staff was disciplined in using their players in a rotation.
Instead of relying upon James Harrison and LaMarr Woodley to log 100 percent of the snaps in a game—which they often did in their prime—the defensive coaching staff tried to split of the reps roughly evenly, factoring in the ‘hot hand’ philosophy and closely monitoring fatigue in their efforts to keep the pass rush as fresh as possible.