The Pittsburgh Steelers face a tough task this week in trying to corral a still dangerous Detroit Lions offense, presumably without T.J. Watt or Nick Herbig on the edge of the line of scrimmage. Both edge rushers did not participate in practice on Thursday, leaving fourth-round rookie Jack Sawyer as the likeliest option to start opposite of Alex Highsmith.
Naturally, there’s concern in such circumstances. Sawyer has been a solid contributor on defense and special teams, but it’s primarily been in a limited rotational role defensively.
Nonetheless, at this point of the season, it’s a next man up mentality, and so the Steelers have to put full confidence in the rookie defender to hold down the position if Watt or Herbig is unavailable.