Seeing rookie fifth-round draft pick Isaiahh Loudermilk eating up so many meaningful snaps down the stretch in the 2021 season was both a blessing and a curse for the Pittsburgh Steelers’ defense.
Late in the season, while dealing with a number of injuries along the defensive line, names like Loudermilk, Montravious Adams and Henry Mondeaux had to play significant snaps throughout games, which led to serious run defense issues overall, sapping the Steelers’ defense of its overall strength in the front seven.
In the center of those struggles was Loudermilk, who was still trying to adjust to the speed and the physicality of the NFL game overall even with coming from the old-school, smash mouth Big Ten.