After taking a look over several days at some of the best offensive players at their positions in 2023 who the Steelers are scheduled to face in 2024, we then switched sides of the ball to look at a couple areas of the defense. Before moving on, here are all the groups who have been covered so far:

Rushers
Receivers
Quarterbacks
Tight Ends
Pass Rushers
Pass Defenders

Today it’s time to check out players who have the most tackles in 2023 who the Steelers are set to face this year. For this one, it should be noted that tackles are NOT an official stat kept by the NFL. For this exercise, I will be using combined tackles reported by Pro Football Reference. As I said before, there could be injuries, trades, benchings, or holdouts which could make these players not able to see the field when they face the Black & Gold. But for now, these things can’t be known for sure. This list consists of players who had at least 140 tackles in 2023, their overall rank last season, and the week in which they will face the Steelers.

Bobby Wagner (1st)
Washington Commanders
Week 10

Returning to the Seattle Seahawks in 2023 for his 12th NFL season, Bobby Wagner led the NFL in tackles for the third time in his career and had a career-high 183 combined tackles. Signing with the Washington Commanders for 2024, it will be interesting to see if Wagner can have his 13th consecutive season with at least 100 combined tackles. Wagner has faced the Steelers four times as a member of the Seattle Seahawks. In his last two matchups in 2021 and 2023, Wagner had 14 tackles in each game. Wagner also had seven tackles in the 2019 matchup with the Steelers and 12 tackles when Pittsburgh traveled to Seattle in 2015.

Zaire Franklin (2nd)
Indianapolis Colts
Week 4

Also landing on this list last year, Zaire Franklin has put up over 160 tackles in each of the last two seasons after never eclipsing 40 in his first four years with the Colts. In four matchups with the Steelers, Franklin has only put up statistics in the last two matchups in the last two seasons where he had 11 tackles in 2022 but only five tackles against the Steelers in 2023.

Alex Singleton (3rd)
Denver Broncos
Week 2

After playing with the Philadelphia Eagles for three seasons as an undrafted free agent, Alex Singleton is another player who has put up over 160 tackles each of the last two seasons, both of which were with the Denver Broncos. Singleton only faced the Steelers once in his career which was in 2020 with the Philadelphia Eagles where he had five tackles.

Roquan Smith (6th)
Baltimore Ravens
Week 11, Week 16

Although it is only for his half as many seasons as Bobby Wagner, Roquan Smith is another player who has had over 100 tackles every season of his NFL career. Playing 4.5 seasons with the Chicago Bears, Smith had one game against the Steelers during that time in which he had 12 tackles in 2021. Since joining Baltimore, Smith has appeared in three games against the Steelers with 11 tackles coming in their October matchup last season.

C.J. Mosley (8th)
New York Jets
Week 7

Jets linebacker C.J. Mosley just completed his third consecutive season of at least 150 tackles as he finished with 152 on the year. Playing his first five NFL seasons in Baltimore before playing the last four with the New York Jets, Mosley has actually faced the Steelers 12 times in his career, with 11 of them coming with during his time in Baltimore. Mosley had four separate games against the Steelers where he had double digit tackles while he was a member of the Ravens, and in 2022 with the Jets Mosley had 11 tackles against Pittsburgh.

Bobby Okereke (9th)
New York Giants
Week 8

After four seasons with the Indianapolis Colts as a third-round draft pick, Bobby Okereke spent 2023 with the New York Giants and had 149 combined tackles. Facing the Steelers three times as a member of the Colts, Okereke’s most tackles in a game was in 2022 with six.

Robert Spillane (10th)
Las Vegas Raiders
Week 6

After one season with the Tennessee Titans followed by four with the Steelers, Robert Spillane is no stranger in Pittsburgh. In his first season with the Las Vegas Raiders, Spillane jumped from 79 tackles with the Steelers in his best season of 2022 to 148 tackles last year. Spillane played in the Week 3 matchup against the Steelers last season where he had seven combined tackles.