Seemingly one of the Pittsburgh Steelers’ best-kept secrets over the course of the past few seasons—and one that they have largely kept from themselves—is the fact that linebacker L.J. Fort is actually a pretty good player. It is a reality that they seem to have finally formally recognized after they included him into the defensive gameplan on Sunday as a sub-package defender.
It was the first time in his Steelers career in which he has gotten into a game on defense for reasons unrelated to injury. While he played a rotational role at the end of last season, that only came after Ryan Shazier was injured.