Back during the preseason, third-year Pittsburgh Steelers outside linebackers coach Joey Porter told reporters that rookie first-round pick T.J. Watt was going to be the starter at the right outside linebackers position, and that former Defensive Player of the Year James Harrison was going to be essentially coming off the bench and picking up scraps.
A former Steelers outside linebacker himself, Porter has a bit of an unfortunate history on this frontier when it comes to predicting a reduced playing time and workload for Harrison, having done so in each of the two prior seasons only to see him play more—and eventually significantly more—than projected.