Steelers Jack Sawyer Keeps It Personal. What is it?

Sawyer Has Second Year Goals

“When you play this game at the highest level, you’re a competitor. You always have personal goals. Those remain personal.”

Jack Sawyer smiled, but he wasn’t giving those up.

What he did reveal says plenty about where the second-year Steelers outside linebacker believes those individual ambitions should fit.

“The biggest, the main objective out here is to win a Super Bowl,” Sawyer said. “Win the AFC North and get to a Super Bowl. I think that if you keep that your main focus, your personal goals will follow.”

For Sawyer, that last part is interesting.

Because finding enough snaps for those personal goals to follow might be more difficult in Pittsburgh than almost anywhere else in football.

The Steelers possess an embarrassment of riches at outside linebacker.

It starts with T.J. Watt, the 2021 NFL Defensive Player of the Year who opened 2026 looking very much interested in adding another trophy. Watt wrecked Atlanta with two sacks, three tackles for loss and an interception returned for a touchdown in Pittsburgh’s 20-13 Week 1 victory.

On Wednesday, he was named AFC Defensive Player of the Week.

Then there’s Alex Highsmith, perpetually stuck playing the bridesmaid in conversations about Pittsburgh’s edge rushers despite being plenty capable of wrecking an afternoon himself. He himself had two sacks against Atlanta.

And Nick Herbig isn’t exactly waiting quietly in line anymore.

Pittsburgh signed him to a new five-year contract in June, keeping another established pass rusher in one of the deepest rooms on the roster.

That’s one hell of a three-headed problem for opposing offensive tackles.

And then there’s Jack Sawyer.

The Fourth Man

Pittsburgh selected Sawyer 123rd overall in the fourth round of the 2025 NFL Draft after a career at Ohio State that ended with a national championship and a postseason filled with enormous moments.

Now, one year removed from his NFL debut, Sawyer finds himself in an unusual developmental situation.

He needs to play.

He also happens to be standing behind three outside linebackers Pittsburgh has invested heavily in.

That makes every snap valuable.

The numbers offer a small but interesting glimpse into Sawyer’s growth.

According to the snap-count figures provided, Sawyer played 15 defensive snaps (23%) and 23 special-teams snaps (74%) in his NFL debut last season. In Week 1 this year, that defensive workload climbed to 23 snaps (38%), while he also logged 24 special-teams snaps (80%).

His production moved with it.

One assist in his rookie opener became four tackles one solo and three assists in his 2026 debut.

No splash play.

But eight more defensive snaps matter when you’re trying to carve playing time out of this room.

“Yeah, I just think you’re more comfortable,” Sawyer said. “You know what to expect. You know what a game day looks like. You know what the preparation leading up to it is going to look like. And now you’re just focused on going out there and playing.”

That might be the biggest difference between Jack Sawyer in September 2025 and Jack Sawyer today.

A year ago, everything was new.

Now Pittsburgh is home.

Then another offseason finally arrived without Sawyer wondering where football would take him next.

“I think it gave a lot more mental clarity,” Sawyer said. “Knowing what you’re gonna do, where you’re gonna be.”

There was one catch.

The Steelers changed coaching staffs, meaning Year 2 didn’t arrive with exactly the same playbook Sawyer left behind.

Still, edge football only gets reinvented in so many ways.

“We’re still playing outside linebacker,” Sawyer said. “We’re doing a lot of the same similar stuff. We’re not reinventing the wheel by any means.”

Then came the sentence that probably best explains why Pittsburgh liked Sawyer in the first place.

“The main objective in our room is put the quarterback on the ground and play the run hard. So, I don’t think that’s changed.”

Neither has the traffic ahead of him.

Watt. Highsmith. Herbig.

Now comes the harder part.

Turning lessons into snaps.

Turning snaps into production.

Jack Sawyer Career Statistics

• Games: 17
• Starts: 1
• Combined Tackles: 38
• Tackles for Loss: 3
• Sacks: 1
• Interceptions: 2
• Passes Defended: 4