Getting more from the middle

Defensive tackle is a position that doesn’t always put up a lot of stats, but it’s safe to say that Pitt needs more production out of the interior defensive line than it has been getting.

Last season, the tackles - seven players in total - combined to make 14 tackles for loss and five sacks. Every other position on the defense had more tackles for loss, including the secondary, where five players combined to make 14.5 tackles for loss and cornerback Dane Jackson had more TFL’s than any defensive tackle.

Jackson had four; the top producing defensive tackles were starters Amir Watts and Shane Roy, who played 14 games each and put up just three TFL’s apiece.

“It’s a lot more than numbers,” Pitt head coach Pat Narduzzi said recently during spring camp. “D-tackles aren’t making a ton of tackles and sacks and TFL’s, but obviously they want to try to stay in their gap. We want those guys to be gap-sound and doing the right thing, and it comes down to executing and doing the right things.

“As long as they’re doing the right thing and in the right spot, even if they get reached or doubled a little bit, our linebackers will fit off them. But they have to at least make the linebackers understand where they are, and I think that’s the key for those guys.”

Narduzzi is right that tackles can often serve as functional pieces to set up other playmakers rather than being the playmakers themselves. Part of that depends on the style of defense; some schemes call for the tackles to attack more, while others look for those players to focus more on creating opportunities for the linebackers.

Defensive line coach Charlie Partridge says that he expects his tackles to be more of the former - to be playmakers themselves.

“We’re a vertical attack type of defense, meaning we’re working on getting up the field,” Partridge said last week. “We’re not as - some teams play a 3-4 and they’re kind of more sideways, gap-maintenance type of team. We are a vertical charge attack team. I think with Keyshon (Camp) and (Jaylen) Twyman and Amir Watts, those guys are showing that they’re getting really good at how to vertically attack and make good fast decisions; that plays into it. The other guys that are young and behind them are really learning from them. So I’m excited about the stats that they can produce for us.”

As Narduzzi and Partridge (and Tom Sims before Partridge, who was hired prior to the 2017 season) have built the current crop of defensive linemen, they have added players who seem to fit a similar mold: quicker, leaner tackles who should be able to get off the line of scrimmage and make plays in the backfield.

There’s precedent for that at Pitt, of course. Six years ago, Aaron Donald had a similar body type and put in a performance for the ages. In the Panthers’ first year as members of the ACC, Donald led his new conference in tackles for loss (28.5) and fumbles forced (four) and finished fourth in the league in sacks (11).

His 66 career tackles for loss are the fourth-most in the NCAA since 2005 and his 30 sacks rank in the top 25 over that span - remarkable production for a defensive tackle.

Donald’s production set an impossibly high standard, and it was inevitable that there would be a drop-off at the position after he left for the NFL following the 2013 season. But the statistical decline in Pitt’s interior defensive line has been severe.

Over the last five seasons, only one defensive tackle has recorded double-digit tackles for loss; that was Shakir Soto, who moved from end to tackle prior to his senior year and recorded exactly 10 TFL’s. Soto’s 4.5 sacks that season also stand as the high-water mark for Pitt tackles in the last five years; no tackle has had more than two sacks in a season over that span.

In the last two seasons, the production has dropped even more. Only one defensive tackle had five tackles for loss in the 2017 or 2018 seasons; similarly, only one had two sacks in either of those two seasons. The two-sack performance came from Camp last year; as a redshirt sophomore, he was in and out of the starting lineup before suffering a season-ending injury in the loss at Notre Dame.

Despite the injury, Camp might be the most promising tackle in the group. He only played seven games but finished with 2.5 tackles for loss, two sacks and 18 pressures; according to Pro Football Focus, those 18 pressures were the fourth-most on the team, and his average of one pressure per 5.1 pass-rush snaps was better than Rashad Weaver (one every 7.2 pass-rush snaps), Dewayne Hendrix (one every 11.1 pass-rush snaps) and Patrick Jones (one every 11.6 pass-rush snaps).

Last year, the coaches toyed with using Camp inside at tackle and outside at end, and he said last week that he could see time in both spots once again.

“I’m just trying to be versatile,” he said. “Anywhere they need me at, that’s where I’m trying to play. Then scouts, when they look at me, they can be like, ‘Oh, he can play inside and out.’”

That said, Camp and Watts figure to be the starters inside this year, with Twyman providing primary backup duties. Behind those three, Pitt will be looking at redshirt freshmen Tyler Bentley, Devin Danielson and David Green.

“Watts and Camp are veterans that can move pretty good,” Narduzzi said, “but we’re going to play four guys in there so Devin, Tyler Bentley - don’t count that guy out, that guy’s looking good, too - they all have a chance.”

“Devin Danielson has some experience,” Partridge said. “The new redshirt rule allowed him to play a little bit. David Green, Tyler Bentley - so you feel like you’ve got a nice group of young guys that are learning from those other three or four that have experience, so I’m excited about what the future looks like.”