The Pittsburgh Steelers reported that their 2025 free agent contract was the first surprise. Perhaps he will replace Elleen Roberts, who is out to Las Vegas to sign with the Raiders.
Are the Steelers getting a 1:1 replacement? Something better, something worse? Similar to DK Metcalf Film Room, we split Harrison’s tape into his run defense, coverage, blitz/rush, usage and special teams.
Perform defense
Harrison is cut from a similar fabric to Roberts. There are similarities between profiles and athletic tests. Harrison was taller and bigger overall at 6025, but they both ran with 4.6 graduating from college and were impressed by the vertices and broads that measured explosiveness. Harrison I jumped 36 inches at the top and 10’2 inches at the widest Compare it to Roberts’ 36-inch and 10-0-inch numbers at the same event.
Like Roberts, Harrison prefers to play downhill. He fills his gaps, holds the points of attack, and at his best he can take on and drop blocks. He is 40th in all clips through this breakdown.
Harrison switched between Baltimore off-ball linebacker and Edge, as explained in more detail in the usage section below. He can set edges and slide blocks.
But his tape is up and down. Harrison can be easily controlled, stacked and washed.
As a tackler, Harrison does a great job doing clean and square work, and he can flash power. However, he has a tendency to drop out the bigger, more powerful runners and has struggled to consistently put the Steelers back down at three meetings in 2024.
The profile football reference charged him with 10 missed tackles and a tackle rate that missed a whopping 15.6-perent. Of the 84 defenders with at least 50 tackles in 2024, Harrison’s rating was 14th highest of all positions, tied with the fourth in linebacker.
coverage
Harrison is a pure zone defender. He gives effort and chases the field, but takes a short, choppy step and doesn’t cover the ground much. He carried and ran on tight ends in coverage, with the quarterback being regularly thrown over him. He struggled during the rare times when he was dependent on human coverage. That included giving up a touchdown grab for Cordarrelle Patterson.
He needs to improve his keys and diagnostic abilities. Harrison is often late and ticked, fooled by false pulls and play, and is slowed to gain depth in the zone. In the second, watch his delay fall into coverage, compared to No. 0 Roquan Smith, who is by his side.
In the open field, he offers solid hit power and the ability to wrap in open grass. That’s positive.
Blitz/Rush
Harrison has worked as an Edge and off-ball rusher. He is not skilled in either, but the latter is more effective. He’s a power rush that appears to run through with limited swipes and hand use to defeat blocks. His rush creates power and can collapse your pockets. He leverages Najee Harris in the first clip, and in the second, he squeezes the gap and puts pressure on Justin Herbert, who led to the final bag from his teammates.
Harrison picked up his first two NFL sacks this season. But they do come with qualifying. The first comes when Broncos QB Bonnix tracks down the sideline and gets stomped on the boundary when Harrison is in a hurry but never contacts him. The other confronted the Giants in New York, but the play where Harrison first fell into coverage was rushed to avoid contact after Tim Boyle scrambled.
Usage
Defensively, Harrison recorded snaps between the outside and inside linebackers throughout the 2024 season. With each focus in pro football, he recorded 196 with the left outer linebacker, 98, right outer linebacker and off-ball linebacker during the regular season.
He began a year where he saw limited defensive playing time and adjusted at the edge more frequently than off-ball. But when the Ravens benched Trenton Simpson later this year, Harrison, along with Chris Bord, saw an increase in snaps. His first start of the season came against Pittsburgh in Week 11, with 316 of his 372 regular-season defensive snaps coming in Week 9 or after Week 9.
Mostly, Harrison played Edge on the front five-down front for Baltimore. Like many teams around the NFL, the Ravens used 5-1 and occasionally rolled Harrison into the line of scrimmage with a 5-2 start. On the front 4-3 or 4-2-5, he played off-ball. Let’s take a look at both.
He was mainly used in running and removed in passing situations. It’s very similar to Roberts, who didn’t play with the 2-minute drill or the dime package. Harrison is the early type of basic rep/linebacker.
Special team
Importantly, Harrison has an extensive special team resume. Since being drafted in 2020, he has recorded 1,558 special team snaps, seventh in the league. He’s similar to Miles Killebrew and Tyler Matakevich.
https://twitter.com/alex_kozora/status/1899287080280207394
Over the past three seasons, Harrison has recorded at least 300 special teams snaps. It’s a 5-phase player. Here’s how PFF charted its usage in 2024:
Kick Coverage: 89 snaps
Kick Return: 72 snaps
Pan return: 65 snaps
Field goal rush: 56 snaps
Panto coverage: 54 snaps
With each profile football reference, Harrison led the Ravens and led 12 special team tackles during his five-year career at Baltimore. This is just an example of 2024, making tackles for a small return against the Cincinnati Bengals.
And here he blocked a fourth quarter field goal against the Cleveland Browns in 2022, maintaining a three-point lead.
Final thoughts
It appears that Malik Harrison was signed to play a similar role to Roberts. Grouping of base 3-4 for snaps as part of a three-person unit. Payton Wilson plays all the Down roles in Nickel and Patrick Queen. Harrison continues to provide the value of many special teams and needs to maximize his Game Day role, knowing that he can only play 15-20 defensive snaps per game.
On the plus side, Harrison is a younger, special team that is stronger than Roberts. Roberts has the versatility inside/outside versatility, but it’s still not clear how much work you’ll see with the external linebacker. Negatively, he is not a fierce tone setter, and Roberts is against the run and is relatively weak. Even coverage was used in a limited way, but Roberts was more instinctive and healthy.
Who knows why Roberts wasn’t brought back? Given that Roberts signed a one-year contract for $3 million and Harrison’s contract averaged $5 million a year over two seasons, it couldn’t be financially relevant. Maybe Pittsburgh wanted to be younger and predicted that Roberts’ game would fall. A contract is where a player is going.
One-on-one, this feels like a downgrade of more money. However, the key parts that determine the strength of the Front Seven and Run Defence are primarily seen in the replacement of Larry Ogunjovi, how the NFL’s second-year Peyton Wilson progresses, and how Patrick Queen finds his footing against Pittsburgh, how the Steelers improve their defensive line. If Wilson takes a big step as a sophomore, it’s no surprise to see him eating Harrison’s snaps and putting him in the role of a sanctuary and special team.
