By Mike Prisuta for Steelers.com
There is no question linebacker Patrick Queen is familiar with what the Cleveland Browns can do, playing against them throughout his NFL career, first with the Baltimore Ravens for four seasons, and now the Steelers.
Sunday will be the second time in three games the Steelers and Browns will meet up this season, and Queen doesn’t mind that the two games are so close together on the schedule.
“I think it’s easier,” said Queen. “Not in the sense of playing them is easier, but just understanding concepts and stuff. When you’ve got a game this close to each other, they know us, we know them already being in the same division. But when you play them this close together, I think that impacts the game that much more.
“It’s best against best. Who will last the longest. Who will be smarter. Who is going to execute the best. Who won’t execute. It’s going to be that much more detailed.”
Queen knows one of the main points of emphasis this week is containing Browns quarterback Jameis Winston, who has been referred to as a gunslinger by many over the last few weeks.
It’s not an easy task, though.
“He is doing a great job,” said Queen. “He is a real throwback like quarterback, anticipating throws, getting it to guys easily, letting guys do what they do.
“When you have a quarterback like that, it makes your job as a defense harder in zones and stuff. We have to go out there and play our game, be closer in zones, be able to match the coverages. We have to be able to do the right things at the right time, don’t give him too much. Don’t give him a lane to escape in and make throws down the field.
“If he does escape, that is when we have to do our job to let the front get a chance to get back at him. Match the coverages and plaster him when we need to.”
The offense isn’t just Winston and the passing game, though. Like the Steelers with Najee Harris and Jaylen Warren, the Browns have a two-headed monster in running backs Nick Chubb and Jerome Ford.
“They have two good backs over there who can do a lot of damage,” said Queen. “Both of them have good vision, great speed. It’s a tough job.
“That is why we are one of the best defenses in the NFL, for games like this. This is when big-time players show up and dominate.”
It’s the culture: There is a culture the Steelers defense has adopted, one that has always been in them, but grown even more this year.
It’s the takeaway culture.
A culture that has grown by the addition of something extremely simple and commonplace.
A t-shirt.
The idea was started by secondary coach Grady Brown, and outside linebackers coach Denzel Martin has been the ‘keeper’ of it.
You get a takeaway, you earn a t-shirt. And it’s not just any t-shirt. On the front, it reads, ‘The Culture,’ and the color is based on how many turnovers you have.
And they are t-shirts players want to earn more than you can even imagine.
Defensive tackle Cameron Heyward lamented earlier this week that he hasn’t gotten one yet.
“I’m still looking for my first one,” said Heyward. “There is a lot of jealousy out there, but I have to pick my play up.”
Donte Jackson keeps racking them up, with five interceptions this season.
“We practice it. We practice that way,” said Jackson. “You get a big play on defense out there at practice, you know you’re going to score with it. You’re getting hyped up by your teammates because of it. It’s just always a big thing. So, it makes guys want to go out and get those type of plays in the game.
“It’s just the culture that’s built here. We expect to do it week in and week out. We’re not a happy bunch when we don’t get a chance to do it. That’s just the expectation. That’s the standard and just the takeaway culture. That’s what it is.”
Jackson knows setting that standard is something everyone on defense is committed to, and it doesn’t surprise him that he leads the team in interceptions, with five being a career-high for him, because he has high expectations for himself.
“I always knew what type of player I was,” said Jackson. “Just always grateful for this opportunity. I worked on myself a lot this offseason, so I expected to come here and ball out.
“I’m just grateful that I am doing that and just going to keep on stacking. It’s not about me. It’s about the unit that most of my plays have been a reflection of other guys doing their job at a high level. I’m just blessed to be here and I’m just going to keep stacking. This is what it is.”
When Jackson talks about working on himself this offseason, a lot of it was due in part to him missing time in 2022 with an Achilles injury, and then just getting his feet back under him in 2023 while he was with the Carolina Panthers.
After being traded from the Panthers to the Steelers in the offseason, he wanted to be sure he was ready to hit the ground running.
“Just my mental is what I worked on,” said Jackson. “I always knew what type of player I was. So just getting back that confidence standpoint. Last year I was coming off an Achilles injury, a torn Achilles. So, just coming back last year, I just felt grateful to be on the field.
“This year I just took a more aggressive approach and not just want to be on the field, but make an impact. And just being around these guys and being around other impactful players week in and week out brings it out of you more. It’s been a testament to the guys around me, picking me up and all going in the same direction.”
Same old story: Mike Tomlin was at it again this week, taking a subtle but unquestionably intentional jab at Cam Heyward’s age. The question to Tomlin on Tuesday had involved how Tomlin, in his 18th season as the Steelers’ head coach, prevents his message to the players from becoming stale.
“There are outliers, like Cam, that’s been in there for 25 years listening to me, but I care less about how he receives the message, and more about developing guys like (Keeanu) Benton, who’s a year and a half into receiving these messages,” Tomlin maintained.
It wasn’t the first time Tomlin has indirectly acknowledged he has a defensive tackle and a defensive captain who is 35 and in his 14th season. He’s been offering up similar comments to Heyward, in hallways, on the practice field, in the locker room, wherever, for about three years now, perhaps longer.
“Probably,” Heyward acknowledged. “It’s a fact, I am older. He knows what motivates me. I tend to know what motivates him, too. That’s why he’s one of the older-tenured coaches in the league. So we go back and forth.”
When it comes to such comments and observations, Heyward doesn’t have a personal favorite. They all resonate.
“It’s all of them, just a collection of them, they just keep poking and prodding,” he continued. “He keeps poking the bear and then I gotta answer for it.”
The relationship the two share isn’t unique to Tomlin’s Steelers’ tenure. But as one of the Steelers’ highest-profile elder statesmen, it’s Heyward’s turn.
“He did it with ‘Big A’ (Aaron Smith), he did it with ‘Keise’ (Brett Keisel),” Heyward remembered. “I don’t know if it’s just the social media era, he’s having more fun doing it to me. But ‘Old Man,’ yeah, he loves doing that now. He’s always told me, ‘If you can’t do this anymore we’re gonna put you out to pasture like ‘Old Yeller.’ I’m not giving him a chance to do that.
“He knows players, and he knows I’m one of those people that wants to play with a chip on his shoulder. I don’t run away from it. I look forward to shutting it up every time.”
