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In this week’s 3-2-1 Column, we’re thinking about Pitt’s defense: where it’s strong, where it’s not and what it needs to do this season.

Three for two
I need to look at other team’s two-deeps more often this season.

I’m not sure why I’ve never really checked this before, but I wonder: do other teams use “OR” like Pitt does? I just looked back at the ACC Championship Game, and in the two-deeps released by the teams, Clemson had quite a few “OR’s”, but they were all in the backups; no starters had that distinction.

Pitt, on the other hand, had three sets of “OR’s” among the starters:

Amir Watts OR Jaylen Twyman at defensive tackle

Elijah Zeise OR Saleem Brightwell at Money linebacker

Phillipie Motley OR Jason Pinnock at cornerback

In that game, at least, there wasn’t really a comparison. Pitt won the battle of the “OR’s,” at least in terms of having more of them.

Depth chart curiosities are what they are, and we all know that Pat Narduzzi has never shied away from creating confusion with the official releases, which often mimic what happened the week before more than they indicate what will happen in the week to come. But even though Pitt is still in its first full week of training camp, there has been plenty of “OR” talk already.

Like on Wednesday, when Narduzzi said he thought there were three positions on defense where he felt like the team has three starter-worthy players: Defensive tackle, cornerback and safety.

You can do the math on that: each of those positions only starts two players, so one of those three starters at each spot will be starting the game on the bench. But it speaks to Pitt’s depth and quality at those positions that Narduzzi took that position.

And it doesn’t seem to just be empty words. At defensive tackle, Watts, Twyman and Keyshon Camp all have extensive playing time and some varying degrees of starting experience, not to mention considerable talent and ability. At safety, Damar Hamlin and Paris Ford are the expected starters but Jazzee Stocker has played quite a bit over the last three years and should know the defense well enough to step in. And cornerback is arguably Pitt’s most talented position group, with Pinnock, Dane Jackson and Damarri Mathis all capable of playing at a high level.

It goes without saying that one big advantage of all these three-starters-for-two-spots situations is that the coaches have the luxury of rotating players to keep them fresh without too much concern for drop-off. Charlie Partridge can put in any combination of Watts or Camp or Twyman and feel pretty confident that he’s not creating a liability. Same with Archie Collins and Jackson, Pinnock and Mathis, as well as Cory Sanders and Hamlin, Ford and Stocker (although I think the separation there is greater than at corner or D-tackle).

And with the secondary players, the options are plentiful for having packages with multiple defensive backs, whether it’s three corners or three safeties.

Most importantly, having those numbers gives Pitt some protection against injuries at those positions. You don’t want to test the depth too much, but the Panthers can absorb one or two injuries at a few spots and still put out some talented personnel.

For next year
The focus is certainly on this season, but there is an advantage to those co-starters beyond 2019, too. Because at two of those three positions where Narduzzi thinks Pitt has three starters, two of them are underclassmen.

At defensive tackle, Watts is the only senior. And at cornerback, Jackson is the only senior. That means Camp and Twyman at tackle and Pinnock and Mathis at corner all have eligibility remaining after 2019.

And that means there is a pipeline of those high-quality players.

Really, this applies to the whole defense - not just those particular positions. There aren’t a ton of seniors on the defense this season. I count just six scholarship players, and only four of those are currently projected as starters:

Watts, Jackson, Hamlin and Saleem Brightwell

Stocker and Florida grad transfer Kylan Johnson are the other two scholarship seniors, and they’ll both be in key reserve roles. But the rest of the two-deep, the other 18 players who projected to be listed as first or second team this season - they all have eligibility remaining after this year.

I’ve used that phrase - “eligibility remaining” - a couple times because it’s a relevant distinction; we can’t say with 100% certainty that all 18 of those players will be suited up for Pitt next season. There are more than a few possible paths they could follow. But we do know that they will all have eligibility after this season, so that’s what we’ll call it.

And the list of guys who fall into that category is an impressive one:

Rashad Weaver. Keyshon Camp. Patrick Jones. Jason Pinnock. Damarri Mathis. Paris Ford. Phil Campbell. Chase Pine.

Those are just among the projected starters. There’s also the entire second team, minus Stocker and Johnson, plus some depth guys like Wendell Davis and all of the freshmen and sophomores, where there is a lot of potential.

I don’t think it’s crazy to say that Pitt’s recruiting has been focused on defense - or, at the very least, more successful on defense - in the last five years, and I think those efforts at stockpiling on that side of the ball should create some solid linkage going forward.

The pros
I mentioned in the last section about the possible paths some of Pitt’s defensive players could take after this season, and one that can’t be ignored is the early departure for the NFL.

Now, I try not to get ahead of myself with this stuff unless there’s an obvious situation - Tyler Boyd or Jordan Whitehead or James Conner, for example. But I think you can look at Pitt’s defense and see quite a few future NFL players, and they aren’t all seniors.

Damar Hamlin and Dane Jackson will probably be paid to play football next year. And I won’t be surprised if Saleem Brightwell and Amir Watts get invites to pro camps.

Then you start talking about some of those younger guys - specifically, Rashad Weaver and Jason Pinnock. Those two look the part already and their play certainly seems to suggest they’re future NFL players. Really, it’s not too much of a stretch to imagine each of those guys having a really successful season in 2019 and…

Like I said, let’s not get too far ahead of ourselves here. We all know the possibilities. Heck, even Paris Ford is in his third season, which means that if he has a breakout year, technically, he could…

I’m doing it again and I’m going to stop. I’m not getting too far ahead of myself.

My point is this: Pitt’s defense has quite a few players who look like future pros, especially along the defensive line and in the secondary. The linebacker position needs an influx of talent, or maybe just the emergence of talent, but we’ll talk about that in a second.

The linemen and the defensive backs, though - those are the areas where Narduzzi has improved the overall talent level. Sure, there are two corners in the NFL who signed with Paul Chryst (Avonte Maddox and Ryan Lewis), and at least one defensive lineman that I can think of - Tyrique Jarrett - has spent some time in the league. But that’s about it, and right now, it looks like Narduzzi has Pitt primed to pump some more players into the next level over the next few years.

Now for the rub:

If you have a bunch of NFL players, which it seems like Pitt does, then…wait for it…wait for it…your defense better actually be good. Like, legitimately good. Like, good from start to finish. Consistently good. No more 300-yard games for North Carolina’s quarterback. No more blowouts where you look like you don’t even belong on the same field as the opponent.

I’m not saying you have to completely shut down guys like Trevor Lawrence - although Pitt was the defense on the field for arguably Lawrence’s worst performance last season - but you do need to stop going into opponents’ record books, if you know what I mean.

The talent is there, even with deficiencies at certain positions. This defense is built on the tandem combination of disrupting a passing game by jamming the timing and creating pressure, and Pitt’s strengths right now are on the edge of the defensive line and in the secondary.

That should all add up to something a little better than what the Panthers have been for the better part of the last four years. Pitt’s defense finished 2018 on a pretty good roll; they need to start 2019 on the same roll - and build from there.

TWO QUESTIONS WE HAVE

What are the big questions?
This section of the column is called “Two questions we have,” but in this particular sub-section, we’re going to talk about multiple questions - as in, the more-than-two questions facing Pitt’s defense this season.

The biggest question mark, to me, is at linebacker. Three starters are gone, and the two semi-starters who return are competing for the same position. All of that equals some inexperience.

Well, “inexperience” might not be the best word. Chase Pine has played a fair amount in the last two years. So has Phil Campbell (albeit at safety). But neither has been a regular starter and even that “fair amount” of playing time isn’t really that much. Pine has played in 23 games over the last two seasons but topped 20 defensive snaps just three times - one of which was the Sun Bowl when he started at middle linebacker in place of Elias Reynolds and played 52 snaps, according to Pro Football Focus.

Campbell has played in 20 games, and while he logged 78 defensive snaps in the final two games of the 2017 season, he didn’t have more than 29 in any game last year and played fewer than 20 in eight games.

And again, all of those defensive snaps were at safety, so there’s a learning curve there.

Saleem Brightwell and Elias Reynolds should be able to lock down the middle linebacker position, but the outside spots, where Pine and Campbell are competing with Kylan Johnson and Cam Bright, respectively, have a lot of uncertainty. The upside is that all of those players appear to be athletic upgrades, but if that athleticism is mostly being used to compensate for mental errors that come from inexperience, then its impact as an upgrade is lessened.

With the way the defensive line and the secondary seem to be coming together, though, the linebackers could be the key ingredient in making this defense really good.

That position isn’t the only question mark, though. While there is reason to believe that Rashad Weaver and Patrick Jones can be quite good at defensive end, there’s far less certainty about the players behind them. Currently, that’s redshirt sophomore Deslin Alexandre and redshirt freshman John Morgan, and while anything can happen, those two will probably be the primary backups throughout the season.

Being a backup defensive end doesn’t mean a lot of time on the bench, though. Last year, Jones was the No. 3 end behind Weaver and Dewayne Hendrix, and he logged 440 defensive snaps, with at least 28 in 12 of the 14 games. That snap total was still about 10-15 reps per game fewer than Hendrix and Weaver played, but it added up to a ton of action on the field - the 10th-most defensive snaps on the team - and now those snaps are laying out there for somebody new.

The most likely candidate to take those reps is Alexandre.

Now, if he jumps to 400+ snaps this season, it’s going to be a huge increase. Last year he played in 13 games but only got work on defense in nine of them - the others were all special teams - and he totaled 74 defensive snaps. Jones went from about 150 snaps in 2017 to 400+ last year, so the huge jump has to come at some point.

For what it’s worth, Weaver thinks Alexandre can be in line for a good season. When I asked him at Media Day to name a player to watch as a potential breakout candidate, here’s what he said:

“I think Deslin Alexandre will come out good and show people that he knows what he’s doing and he’ll make plays. I feel like he’ll come out as Pat was last year. I think he’ll have good production like Pat did with those reps - limited reps but significant throughout a game to make a difference.”

That’s a good endorsement, and when I asked defensive line coach Charlie Partridge about the Jones/Alexandre comparison, he said he thought it was pretty accurate.

Pitt was fortunate last season in that neither Weaver nor Hendrix missed any significant time due to injury, but that’s not something you can count on; chances are, someone will get hurt and have to take off a few plays or more. That’s when the depth will be tested - in addition to the rotation Partridge hopes he can establish - and that’s when Alexandre and Morgan will need to shine.

To me, those are the two biggest position-specific question marks: the inexperience at linebacker and the depth at defensive end. There are bigger questions about the consistency of the defense and how it will handle potent passing attacks, but on the micro level, the linebackers and reserve ends are the spots facing the most uncertainty.

Who’s the most important player?
This is a bit of a broad question and not one that is easily quantified, but it’s a fun discussion to have (and I’d like to hear responses on it, too).

Who is Pitt’s most important player on defense this season? Which player’s individual success can most directly impact the success of the defense?

There are a lot of options for this. You can start up front with Weaver; the pass rush is key for this defense, as the Panthers simply have to do a better job disrupting the quarterback’s timing and make him uncomfortable. If Weaver becomes one of the best pass-rushers in the ACC - and he’s not far off now - it will go a long way in the defense as a whole taking a step forward.

You could make a case for Damar Hamlin. He’s a leader for the defense (and the team), a quarterback of sorts for the defense making calls in the secondary. Hamlin is a rock-solid player, a sure tackler and a safety with a knack for finding the ball.

I can’t not mention Paris Ford here, too. He’s one of the most explosive players on the team, a plus-athlete whose maturity and mental skills seem to be finally catching up with his physical ability. If he really can put it all together, Ford can make the kind of game-changing plays this defense needs in order to truly get to the next level.

And then there’s the middle linebacker. Whether it’s Saleem Brightwell or Elias Reynolds, the middle linebacker has so many responsibilities before and after the snap that leaving that position out of the conversation would be an oversight. Whoever the middle linebacker is, they’re going to need to play at a high level to put this defense in the best position to succeed.

I don’t want to leave the cornerbacks out of this, but I think they might fall into a different category than “most important.” I’m thinking something like, “best overall player,” since that seems more fitting. I’m just not sure if I would call either guy the “most important.”

If I had to pick one, knowing full well that this is a team game with a need for everyone to contribute, I’d probably go with Weaver. For one thing, he’s really good. For another, his position can make a huge impact. And for a third, there’s the depth situation to consider. Reynolds and Brightwell have each other as backups. The safeties have a third option. The corners do, too. But there’s not nearly that much behind Weaver, which makes his individual importance even greater.

Pitt’s defense needs him to be great this season - maybe more than any other single player.

JUST ONE MORE THING

I’m going to close out this week’s column on the defense by talking about a couple guys we’ve mentioned a few times already, and I’m bringing them up because I wrote about them this week:

Damar Hamlin and Paris Ford

I wrote about those two for a few reasons. They’re projected starters, so that’s a good motivation, but naturally, there’s more to it than that. Ford’s story alone will be the subject of plenty of articles this season, assuming he continues heading in the right direction. And as I thought about that storyline and how we’ll all be writing about his development and maturity and those kinds of things, it occurred to me that his relationship with Hamlin is worth looking into.

Hamlin and Ford are close friends; I knew that already. And I knew that Hamlin has been a leader for this defense in the last couple years. So it stood to reason that Hamlin, the leader, was probably helping Ford, his friend, through a couple difficult seasons.

It seemed obvious, then, to ask Ford and Hamlin about that on Media Day, and sure enough, my suspicions were correct: Hamlin has been working closely with Ford since he arrived at Pitt. And if Ford has the kind of success that we all expect him to have - or at least believe he’s capable of having - then Hamlin will deserve a lot of credit.

It’s a good story. Two longtime friends always dreamed of playing together and even attended the same high school for a year but never actually lined up next to each other. They finally get together in college, but one lags behind, enrolling late, redshirting and then bouncing around to a different position for a year before landing where he should have always been (at safety).

All the while, the older friend looks after the younger one, just like he did through high school. He keeps his spirits up, he helps him learn the playbook and then, in the younger one’s third year and the older one’s last year, it comes together. The young friend “gets it” and earns a starting job next to the player he considers a brother.

After nearly a decade, they are on the field together as the anchors at the back of Pitt’s defense. It might only happen for one season, but if all goes as planned, it will be worth the wait. For all parties.