Explaining Steelers Defensive Line Positions
Welcome to Steelers Morning Rush, our new daily short-form podcast with Alan Saunders, giving a longer perspective on a single news topic surrounding the Pittsburgh Steelers or the National Football League. Today, it’s the names for the positions that defensive linemen line up in.
The Steelers traditionally play in a 3-4 defense, which uses a nose tackle and two defensive ends. Some teams use a 4-3, with two defensive ends and two defensive tackles. But those defensive ends are not the same.
In the Steelers’ base defense, the ends play directly over or just inside the tackle, while ends in a 4-3 play well outside, sometimes even outside the tight ends. That makes 4-3 defensive ends more similar to Pittsburgh outside linebackers.
Instead of vague descriptions like end and tackle, NFL teams have a system to break down each possible defensive line alignment, starting with a zero technique, which is a true nose tackle over the center, and moving outward from there.
So when the Steelers are looking at defensive lineman, what do we mean when we saw three-technique or five-technique? Alan breaks it down.
