The Pittsburgh Steelers have gone through the first stretch of the 2026 NFL offseason that resembles no other offseason the team has gone through in nearly two decades. After former Head Coach Mike Tomlin stepped down from his role after 19 seasons, the Steelers hired Mike McCarthy to take over that role, which has Steeler Nation looking over every detail of the new coaching staff with a fine tooth comb.
Matt Freed / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Former Steelers Head Coach Mike Tomlin meets with ex-Cowboys Head Coach Mike McCarthy after a game.
Many of the members of the staff that McCarthy has brought in to join him in Pittsburgh have some sort of history with him in the past, and that includes the defensive coordinator hire of Patrick Graham. Graham was likely the most important piece of McCarthy's staff to get right, as McCarthy himself handles the in-game decision-making and a large amount of the game-planning on the offensive side throughout any given season.
Graham and McCarthy were together for one season while McCarthy was the head coach of the Green Bay Packers in 2018, and Graham has since spent six seasons as a defensive coordinator with the New York Giants, Las Vegas Raiders and Miami Dolphins.
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Patrick Graham during his time as the defensive coordinator for the Las Vegas Raiders.
In a recent interview, Graham sat down with Steelers reporter Missi Matthews, and hhe discussed why he chose to come to Pittsburgh as well as many other topics. During that sit-down, Graham was asked what he is most excited about on the Steelers roster in terms of the players on the defensive side of the ball. His initial response was very clear: size matters.
"The size." Graham said. "The shear mass of the human beings we have lined up out there. This is what you envision in terms of your defense to look like in terms of length, size, mass. They're just big men. Every time I have met one of them, most of them are all bigger than me. I'm not a small guy, but they just dwarf me. I'm like, 'Yes this is exactly what I want it to look like.'"
It is not a surprise that Graham is impressed with the size the Steelers' defense has throughout its depth chart. Running a 3-4 defense, the defensive linemen tend to be larger in size than the average defensive lineman in other schemes across the NFL.
Despite the NFL trending more to a faster game with athleticism being a heavy focus by many team, the Steelers still haven't avoided getting significant mass added to their team.
Across the last three draft classes, the Steelers added three defensive linemen who all tip the scales decently over 300 pounds in Keeanu Benton (2023), Derrick Harmon (2025), and Yahya Black (2025). All three players were some of the larger defensive linemen in their draft classes and are expected to still be heavy contributors in 2026, pun intended.
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Steelers' Derrick Harmon talks with Keeanu Benton during a road game against the New England Patriots in 2025.
That list doesn't even include veteran Cam Heyward, who may be officially listed at 295 pounds, but likely plays a good amount above that weight in recent seasons as he continues to play at an elite level even as a long-time veteran.
After Graham's comments on how excited he is to see the size the Steelers have on the defensive side, it is pretty clear that while the overall plays may look slightly different in 2026, the Steelers continuing to roll out a lineup of multiple big bodies to impose their will on offensive lines will still be a key part of their defense.
Steelers' 2025 Draft Class Needs To Show Development In 2026
While Steeler Nation is still very excited about the Steelers 2025 draft class after what was a solid showing from the group during the 2025 season, there is still decent room for improvement. That group was recently ranked in the middle of the pack throughout the NFL, and a lot of the reasoning was due to the lack of significant impact across the board in year one.
Harmon was expected to come in and play a significant role as a rookie, but due to a knee injury he only appeared in 12 games. He showed flashes of dominance which is why the Steelers drafted him in the first round, but sustained success throughout the entirety of the 2026 season will be big for him to show the 2025 draft class can be a great one.
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