For the second straight year, during the lead-up to the season, a safety has arrived with the Pittsburgh Steelers and put lofty expectations into the ether. While not as hasty with his words as Juan Thornhill was, Jaquan Brisker let it be known that Patrick Graham's defense isn't content with being OK.
"I feel like we have the potential to be the best, to be top-five, top-three, to get back to what Pittsburgh is used to with their defense being on top," Brisker said via Mark Kaboly. "We want to be a top-five defense, and that should be the mindset. We got talent everywhere, you know, from the D-line, and we got dead linebackers, we got that, corners, nickel, safeties. We have depth, a lot of moving parts, and we are deep. We have a dope coaching staff, too.
To be fair to Brisker, a Gateway High School and Penn State product, his comment wasn't a forecast. Thornhill's, however, couldn't be mistaken as anything other than a prediction.
Pittsburgh Steelers safety Juan Thornhill during a game against the Cleveland Browns on Oct. 12, 2025. — Ed Thompson / Steelers Now
"I think it could be one of the best of all time," Thornhill said about two weeks into last year's training camp at St. Vincent College. "And I'm putting that in the air right now — one of the best of all time."
He added that he didn't "feel like there's a weakness on the defense." The unit wound up allowing the seventh-most yards per game (356.9) and had the fourth-worst passing resistance (243.9 yards per game). Thornhill, signed last offseason, didn't make it halfway through November. He was released because, as Mike Tomlin put it, his play "wasn't up to snuff."
Brisker grew up watching defense that prided themselves on physicality and stinginess. He'll aim to help the unit more closely resemble those than last year's.
This article originally appeared on Steelers Now : Have Steelers Still Not Learned Lesson from Juan Thornhill's Ill-Advised Prophecy?
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