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Brooke Pryor, ESPN Staff Writer
PITTSBURGH — It’s Saturday morning at the Pittsburgh Steelers ‘ practice facility on the banks of the Monongahela River, and outside linebackers coach Denzel Martin is cueing up a mixtape as defensive players file into their meeting room.
It’s a compilation of all the missed opportunities from the previous game and week of practice — the near interceptions, the blown chances to force a fumble or pick up a loose ball. It’s a raucous scene, players teasing and booing one another as they watch the moments that could’ve been.
After the lowlights, they run through the highlights, and then it’s time for the most important part of the morning: T-shirts.
One by one, Martin calls out players who had a hand in forcing a turnover in the previous week’s game and hands them a shirt with two lines of block lettering across the front: “The Culture” and “Takeaways.”
“I’ve seen them since I got here,” said outside linebacker Preston Smith, who earned his first shirt with a fumble recovery against the Bengals last Sunday. “It’s a great thing to start and then gives guys more to work for. Guys are really going crazy for the T-shirts. … I’m waiting for my T-shirt now.”
With a league-high 25 takeaways, the Steelers have given out a lot of shirts — so many, in fact, that the defensive assistant coaches have had to come up with more ways to identify and celebrate new milestones.
“It’s fun to see what the guys will do for takeaways,” Martin said. “T.J. Watt punched the ball away, and he said to me, ‘Hey, can I get my shirt?’ We like that college-type feel to where we’re doing it for something. It makes the guys go, and it’s fun. … The guys buy into it, and you see it showing up on the field.”
The shirts represent an aggressive culture set by coach Mike Tomlin that permeates every area of the defense. Heading into Sunday against the Cleveland Browns (1 p.m. ET, CBS), the Steelers have 14 forced fumbles and 12 fumble recoveries, both tied for the most in the NFL, along with 15 interceptions, good for fourth most. The Steelers forced three turnovers against the Browns in their Week 12 loss. Creating even more takeaways will be a major key in Sunday’s rematch with a team that has 18 total turnovers this season.
“We’re always trying to ball search to get the ball,” linebacker Elandon Roberts said. “There can be a defensive player or an offensive player walking around the building, and if they’ve got the ball, we’re going to try to punch at it. It’s just creating that type of culture. At the end of the day, the name of the game is getting the ball back defensively. It’s getting the ball back to the offense so they can score.”
To reinforce that mentality, Tomlin picked secondary coach Grady Brown to lead the team’s takeaway culture. Not only was Brown tasked with leading the installation of practice drills to emphasize punching the ball out and creating takeaways, but he also came up with a system to incentivize turnovers.
White shirts were awarded for a player’s first forced fumble or fumble recovery in a game. A yellow shirt for the first interception. Each first-time shirt also includes the line, “I got one.”
“What I realized coming from the college game, you do so many things to keep the fire going,” said Brown, who spent two decades coaching college teams. “Then you get to the NFL, and you say, ‘OK, well they’re pros.’ They get paid, whatever the case may be. All of these guys were still in college. You would be surprised how excited a guy who’s a millionaire is to get a T-shirt.”
By Week 4, Brown had to add another level when safety DeShon Elliott recorded a forced fumble to mark his second takeaway of the season. The defensive assistants introduced a gray shirt for anyone who recorded his second takeaway. Then in Week 6 when cornerback Donte Jackson nabbed his third interception of the season and Watt forced his second and third fumbles, the pair were awarded a black T-shirts that have “I’m in the zone” across the back.
“I call him D.J. Maxx because he’s got so many shirts,” safety Miles Killebrew said, laughing as he interrupted Jackson trying to count his shirt total.
“He’s like the Goodwill over here,” Watt chimed in.
Jackson said he has lost count of his shirts, adding his kids like to wear them to bed. Rookie cornerback Beanie Bishop Jr., who has two shirts, also uses one as pajamas.
“I wear one every time I go to sleep,” Bishop said. “You go to sleep with that on your mind, getting takeaways. Dream about picks.”
Now involved in six takeaways each, Jackson and Watt have vaulted past shirts and are on to earning black belts. They don’t have the physical belts yet — Brown said he’s leaning toward a martial arts-style cloth belt over a WWE championship belt — but each is considered a second-degree.
“You get your first degree when you’re part of three, second degree when you’re a part of six of [takeaways],” Watt said. “And then I think nine, I think Donte’s close to that, so he’s going to be leading these meetings soon and kicking Denzel out of his spot.
“It’s a fun thing. It creates good camaraderie, good banter between the guys, but more than anything, we just want to make plays and we want to help our team win.”
A week ago, rookie linebacker Payton Wilson secured his second shirt as he scooped up linebacker Nick Herbig‘s forced fumble in Cincinnati, leaving Roberts as the only inside linebacker without a shirt this season.
“You got [Patrick Queen] and [Payton] with ’em, and I ain’t got one,” Roberts said. “I’m like, ‘Dang, I got [to] try to get one no matter what.’ So I’m on high alert right now to try to get that ball for the team — and I want me a shirt.”
The shirts and belts aren’t the only things creating a friendly rivalry among defensive teammates. Players are also rewarded with helmet stickers for certain plays, and there’s a leaderboard of practice takeaways that is updated and presented to the group each week.
“You get put on a big board, you get clapped up,” Jackson said. “It’s like a big deal. You got guys going all out for practice, trying to punch it out, trying to pick it, trying to do anything just to get that feeling, get your teammates getting hyped for you — all for practice.”
With five regular-season games left, Brown and the defensive assistants are constantly adding to the reward system — a good problem to have. This week, they’re introducing a shirt for batted passes that lead to interceptions. Cam Heyward will be awarded the first one for tipping a Joe Burrow pass that led to Jackson’s interception.
“Whenever a guy sets a new standard, we just create a new system of what you get when you set the new standard,” Brown said. “The players have done a good job just setting the bar higher and higher each week.
“At the end of the day, we’re really just paying respect to how good these offenses are in today’s football and how good these quarterbacks are in today’s football. We’re just searching for ways to get the ball back to our offense so we can have an opportunity to put more points on board.”