Former Pittsburgh Steelers linebacker Vince Williams peeled back the curtain on one aspect of the Steelers' defense that was a major issue under former head coach Mike Tomlin and defensive coordinator Teryl Austin .
"Steelers defense did have an unhealthy attachment to base personnel. 5 man pressure was a strength that lived long enough to become a weakness," Williams wrote on X Saturday.
Williams is not the only former Steeler to question the schematics of Tomlin's defense. Former Steelers cornerback Darius Slay recently had some choice words for the Steelers' defensive scheme. And he didn't place the blame on former Steelers defensive coordinator Teryl Austin, who also coached Slay in Detroit .
"I ain't gonna lie to you, that Pittsburgh stuff, that was rough for my dog [ Jalen Ramsey ] because that shit backwards over there, " Slay said on his Big Play Slay podcast. "That ain't [Teryl Austin] shit. TA ain't teach none of that shit in f***ing Detroit. They was outside leverage on every f***ing call. That's why you see, whenever Ramsey got scored on, he's chasing someone that's running away from outside leverage.
"It's crazy. Them guys make plays. Don't get me wrong. This is what these [coaches] were telling me, 'You play outside leverage, and if they catch a ball inside, it's on the [defensive] line because they're so good at batting the ball down.' I'm not banking on that. That's the only thing I did not like about the defense. Everything was outside leverage in the red zone. That shit was weird as f***. I never played that shit."
Last month, Tomlin, in his debut appearance on NBC, sat down with Maria Taylor during Sunday's NBA Showtime pregame show to break the news publicly about him joining the broadcast crew and discuss his decision to step down after 19 seasons leading the Steelers. Taylor asked Tomlin if there was a "blink" moment that caused him to decide to leave coaching at this time.
Tomlin admitted it was time for new leadership in Pittsburgh.
"It's probably not an overnight decision, but it's probably not something that I could articulate or share with people," he said in . "There's a loneliness with leadership. I just thought it was a good time for me personally, and by that, I just mean where I am in life. I thought it was a good time for the organization, to be quite honest with you. We didn't have a lot of success in the playoffs in recent years and there's just some veteran players there, man, guys like Cam Heyward and T.J. Watt and [Chris] Boswell, that I thought were worthy of the excitement and the optimism associated with new leadership."
Pittsburgh Steelers defensive coordinator Patrick Graham in his introductory press conference on April 17, 2026. — Alan Saunders / Steelers Now
New Steelers defensive coordinator Patrick Graham has made his expectations clear to his defensive unit. He wants to bring back the Steel Curtain style of defense that has been missing in Pittsburgh.
"PG's been really clear. He wants it to be the Steel Curtain," Steelers linebacker Payton Wilson said on Monday after the team's first OTAs practice. "We have to earn that right, that's not just something that comes with being a part of the Steelers. Those were some great, great defenses that have earned that name, so I mean the identity is still the same, we're still in Pittsburgh and we want to be fast, we want to be tough and we don't want to let anyone run the ball on us ever."
Steelers outside linebacker Alex Highsmith echoed Wilson's statement. The Steelers want to get back to being a dominant defense. That hasn't been the case the last several years, despite being the highest-paid defense in the NFL.
"You gotta want to play to that standard every single year," Highsmith said on Monday. "We know that those guys who played during the Steel Curtain, they set that standard for Steeler defense around here, and so we know we have the talent and the players to be that type of defense, so that should be a realistic expectation for us to perform like that, so we should gotta go out and do it. It starts with right now learning the defense and getting the communication detail down, and then once we have that down, we can play fast and we can play physical, play Steeler football the way it's supposed to be played."
Alan Saunders provided reporting from Pittsburgh.
This article originally appeared on Steelers Now : Former Steelers LB Reveals Major Flaw with Defense Under Mike Tomlin
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