The Pittsburgh Steelers' fifth-round rookie nose tackle is ready to start the season.
The Pittsburgh Steelers had a clear focus on improving their run defense in this year's NFL Draft.
General manager Omar Khan followed his first-round pick of defensive tackle Derrick Harmon with Iowa's Yahya Black in the fifth round.
Since the Steelers already have a reliable nose tackle on the roster in Keeanu Benton, Pittsburgh could use Black as a four-technique lineman.
Across five seasons at Iowa, he posted 117 combined tackles with 51 solo and 15 for loss, while adding 5.5 sacks, 11 passes defended and three forced fumbles.
Black admitted that he's a "run stopper guy."
"I've always been a run through your face type of person," Black said, via Teresa Varley of Steelers.com. "I'm glad other people notice it too. I'm a run stopper guy, so I'm going to do everything in my power to stop the run and then develop in any other place that I need to."
Steelers' defensive line coach Karl Dunbar was impressed by Black at mandatory minicamp.
“He can play all over the defensive line,” Dunbar said, via Josh Carney of Steelers Depot. “You know, he’ll play over the center, he’ll play at 4i. Right now, he is working at 4i, but we think he can play all over the place.”
Dunbar did admit that there are things he has to continue to work on.
"I think right now, his strength is the run game," Dunbar said. "He's a big, strong physical kid and we are working on his pass skills, and I think that's the thing we really can work on with no pads on. And we're gonna see what kind of physical guy he is when we put the pads on them."
