Stephon Tuitt wants teams to be ‘afraid to play’ Steelers

The Steelers defense still has a lot of holes, but it made big strides in 2015.

Defensive end Stephon Tuitt, who will be entering his third season, says the unit can make even bigger strides in 2016.

“I want people to be afraid to play us,” Tuitt told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

The 6’6″, 304-pound Tuitt was second on the team in 2015 with 6.5 sacks. He and other young players like Ryan Shazier helped the defense improve later in the season. Injuries to DeAngelo Williams and Antonio Brown hampered what had been a high-powered offense in the playoffs, but the defense helped carry the Steelers into the the divisional round at Denver.

The Steelers were third in the league with 48 sacks last season and tied for third with 30 takeaways. However, they were 30th against the pass and are in dire need of secondary help in free agency or the draft.

So while the Steelers defense has some work to do before it starts striking fear in opponents, offenses at least had to conduct themselves like streetsmart pedestrians wary of pocket pickers.