Steelers News: Have the Steelers neglected the outside linebacker position?

The Pittsburgh Steelers are moving into Week 8 of the NFL regular season, and as the team prepares for the Miami Dolphins this week we continue to provide you with features, commentary and opinions to tide you over until the next game starts!

Today in the black-and-gold links article we take a look at how the Steelers have failed to properly address the outside linebacker position, and it is now catching up to them.

Let’s get to the news:

• The Steelers have drafted outside linebackers high in the NFL Draft, but have they really addressed the position in free agency for depth? That answer might be clear as day on Monday night when the Dolphins come to town.

Tim Benz: Failure to add OLB depth catching up to Steelers

By: Tim Benz, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review

The Pittsburgh Steelers set themselves up for this. They had it coming.

On Monday night when the team plays against Miami, it could be down to just one outside linebacker — Bud Dupree — with significant game experience.

Anthony Chickillo was placed on the commissioner’s exempt list because of his weekend incident at Nemacolin Woodlands Resort. So don’t look for him to play.

T.J. Watt, arguably the team’s best player so far this season, is dealing with an oblique injury that could prevent him from suiting up.

That leaves Ola Adeniyi as potentially the other starter at outside linebacker. All he has for game experience is seven appearances with four tackles over two years.

“I’m not feeling great,” head coach Mike Tomlin said about his depth at outside linebacker on Tuesday. “But such is life in the National Football League. At times you are going to be challenged positionally.”

To read the full article, click HERE (Free)

• Revenge for Minkah Fitzpatrick? Nope...just another game.

Minkah Fitzpatrick downplays getting chance to play against his former team

By: Joe Rutter, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review

Minkah Fitzpatrick insists there is no extra motivation. No incentive to hand another loss to a team that has strung up six in a row to start this season. No reason to rip the organization he so badly wanted to leave in September.

When the Pittsburgh Steelers face the Miami Dolphins on Monday night, it will be “another game, another team from a different city, a different state.”

Those are the words Fitzpatrick, the Steelers’ 22-year-old safety, used Wednesday morning to describe what it will be like facing the Dolphins six weeks to the day after he was shipped to Pittsburgh in exchange for a 2020 first-round draft pick.

“I have to go out there, do my job, prepare like I usually do and play good ball,” Fitzpatrick said. “That’s it.”

Fitzpatrick asked to be traded a few days after the Dolphins were overwhelmed 59-10 by the Baltimore Ravens in the season opener, which was Brian Flores’ debut as Miami’s coach. The Dolphins already had shifted into rebuilding mode before the season started by trading away talented young players Laremy Tunsil and Kenny Stills.

To read the full article, click HERE (Free)

• Chris Boswell is having a tremendous bounce back year, and Danny Smith says it all comes down to attention to detail.

Smith on Boswell: ‘He is detailing his work’

By: Teresa Varley, Steelers.com

What a difference a year is making for Chris Boswell. After a season where he made 13 of 20 field goal attempts and missed five extra points, Chris Boswell is off to a strong start. He has connected on 11 of 11 field goals and is 12 for 12 on extra points through six games.

Special teams coordinator Danny Smith said he sees a difference in Boswell, and most of that is in the way he is detailing his work.

“He is doing well. He really is,” said Smith. “His mind is right. His work habits are good. We are getting good work done. He has been very productive. He is detailing his work. You have to detail at that position, like any other position. When you lose some of those details, which might have happened in the past with an off year, we are going to come back together and put attention on the detail and it’s really showing in his production.”

To read the full article, click HERE (Free)

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