Pittsburgh Steelers: Reviewing the top 2020 rookies

Pittsburgh Steelers 2020 rookie review: OLB Alex Highsmith

With the Pittsburgh Steelers’ third-round selection, they decided to add depth at edge rusher with Alex Highsmith from UNC-Charlotte. Highsmith was brought in to back up Bud Dupree and special teams purpose.

What Highsmith would end up being was Bud Dupree’s replacement when he went down with a torn ACL. Highsmith showed flashes of ability but also needs a lot more experience and training if he wants to make that next step.

Highsmith ended the year with two sacks and 30 solo tackles, which is very good for a backup edge rusher. Similar to Claypool, Highsmith is a raw product that sometimes takes time to mature and groom into a starting role.

Although he had a lot of success in college, Highsmith was a walk-on at UNC-Charlotte until earning himself a scholarship. It showed at times that Highsmith has some learning to do and needs to adapt more rush moves to get at opposing quarterbacks for he had only one to two solid moves of pressure.

Highsmith did show that he can hold his own in a starting role in both pressures and did a solid job reading defenses. For example, in the first meeting with the Ravens he had a great interception where he showed rush, but read the play and dropped in coverage.

More plays like that could earn him more playtime and with Dupree being a free agent this offseason he could see himself lining up as the opposing edge rusher to TJ Watt.