After looking yesterday at a position group where the Steelers are going with one less player than usual, let’s check out where the Steelers are keeping an unusually high number of players.

While I had recently thrown out the idea of the Steelers only keeping six defensive linemen, only because that’s what used to be the norm, the Steelers went the other way of deviating from their seven players from the last two seasons. One of the more surprising decisions from a numbers standpoint was for the Steelers to have eight defensive lineman on their roster.

Part of the reason this is so intriguing is the Steelers only have three defensive linemen on the field less than a third of the snaps based on today’s NFL subpackages. Otherwise there are only two players on the field. When everything is averaged out, the Steelers have approximately 2.3 defensive lineman on the field per play during the season.

So what is the advantage of keeping eight players?

There are several lines of thinking in this regard that will ultimately play out through the season with some possibilities being known sooner than later. Perhaps this is a place where the Steelers know they won’t be keeping this number of players. Eventually the Steelers will need a roster move and will likely attempt to get a player onto the practice squad after cut-down day. The later time could make it easier as other teams have their 53-man rosters more established. Another explanation is perhaps the Steelers, knowing they must have five players inactive every week, know they will have two players from this position group inactive each game. By having them on the 53-man roster, there is no danger of losing them. The other idea is the Steelers only actually have seven defensive lineman because DeMarvin Leal is the Steelers fourth outside linebacker.

While any of those options could be the case, I’d like to talk first about DeMarvin Leal. Yes, he has to be the Steelers fourth option at outside linebacker because they have no one else. But does that mean that’s the only position he will play? Personally, I like the idea of him playing on the defensive line for his anticipated snaps and sliding to the outside if he is needed. Having a player that is depth at multiple positions can really free up the game-day active 48 players. If he is acting as the fourth OLB, to dismiss him from the defensive line isn’t necessary.

So will the Steelers continue with eight defensive lineman into the season?

The Steelers actually had this many defensive linemen on their initial 53-man roster in 2021. But with the rules for the Reserve/Injured List being different as they were changed for the 2024 season, having eight defensive linemen was not long-lived that year. In fact, it was only one day as the Steelers placed Stephon Tuitt on IR. Because these are no longer the rules, the last time the Steelers kept eight defensive linemen is not a comparable situation.

For me, this all came down to the Steelers choosing to have their sixth-round draft pick Logan Lee on the 53-man roster rather than attempt to get him to the practice squad. Would they have been able to do so? We will never definitively know that answer so it will always be open to debate. But I would personally be shocked if Logan Lee ends up active on game day, particularly early in the season, outside of multiple injuries at the position.

If the Steelers continue to roll with eight defensive linemen into the regular season, I think having more than six of them active on game day just doesn’t work out from a numbers standpoint. For now, if all players are healthy, I look for Logan Lee and Isaiahh Loudermilk to be inactive on game day. While Dean Lowry and Montravius Adams aren’t 100% definite locks to get a helmet on game day either, although I would think Adams is close to it, I would still lean towards the other two landing on the inactive list.

Chances are as the season rolls on, the Steelers are going to have needs at other positions. When that happens, the luxury of the extra defensive lineman will likely have to be reevaluated. But for now, the Steelers can work things this way knowing that not all their players will be active on game day. If they were, finding meaningful snaps for that many players on the defensive line would not be worth the hassle of carrying the extra player.

For those who may have picked up on the references in the title of both of these articles, the outside linebacker title referenced Schoolhouse Rock/De La Soul while today’s title referenced an old Merrie Melodies cartoon called “I Love to Sing-a.”