Taking Stock of Pitt Football's Defensive Line
PITTSBURGH -- If nothing else, the Pitt Panthers have been able to count on elite play from its front four over the past three seasons, during which they led the country in sacks. This season should be no different, as the Panthers return talent and experience that should make them one of the best units in America.
The defensive line is a north star of Pitt defenses. This is by far the deepest unit on the team - offense or defense. It is stacked with high-end talent, led by one of the best position coaches in the game and gifted with free reign to play an aggressive style that sells out against the run and creates relentless quarterback pressure.
Defensive line coach Charlie Partridge gave some insight into how he handles rotations along the line at the outset of last season's training camp. He likes to rotate players in and keep legs fresh. But if he has any standouts, they will take the bulk of the snaps, like former Pitt All-Americans Rashad Weaver and Patrick Jones II did in 2020.
'We're going to rotate a lot of guys. I always have, I always will. My dream is to have five inside and five outside guys. How the percentages are distributed depends on the day. You average about 70 snaps a game so that's 140 end snaps, 140 defensive tackle snaps. ... [In 2020], 100 of those 140 were probably going to be distributed to Rashad [Weaver] and Pat [Jones].'
Training camp will force the Panthers' defensive staff to make some decisions, but they are lucky only to be concerned with distributing those 280 total snaps instead of filling them.
A rough inventory of the position group yields four fairly sure bets on the edges. Habakkuk Baldonado and Deslin Alexandre are all but sure to start opposite one another at the ends while John Morgan and sophomore Dayon Hayes - who emerged as an important rotation player late in the season - mix in as first backups.
Where things get interesting is along the interior of the line. 2021 first team All-ACC tackle Calijah Kancey is a rising darling for professional scouts and is expected to anchor the front four. His running mates on the inside of the line will vary. Tyler Bently, David Green and Devin Danielson all made and figure to push one another for time on the field.
There is also the Elliot Donald question. The former blue chip recruit and nephew of Pitt great Aaron Donald took a medical redshirt during his freshman season in 2021. If and how the talented defensive tackle fits in with the rotation remains a mystery for now, but the Panthers will be in no rush. Same goes for another former four-star recruit turned redshirt freshman, Nahki Johnson and classmate Dorien Ford - a 6'4, 305-pound, redshirt freshman tackle.
These young players won't be rushed into action. Given how well constructed this position group in the present, catastrophic bites from the injury bug is likely the only way they see the field for substantial time in 2022.
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