DeMarvin Leal spent his first two seasons at defensive end. The Steelers now are trying the 2022 third-round pick at outside linebacker.
“He’s always been an athletic guy. He’s more attentive in the meetings,” Steelers defensive line coach Karl Dunbar said, via Brian Batko of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. “You see him out here. He’s learned both of them — defensive end position and outside linebacker positions. You can see the productivity on the field is starting to show up.”
T.J. Watt and Alex Highsmith won’t play in the preseason opener, and Markus Golden hasn’t been practicing. That means Leal will see plenty of snaps against the Texans, along with Nick Herbig and Kyron Johnson.
Leal has played only 23 games with six starts with 29 tackles, a sack and four pass breakups. But he just turned 24 last month and he’s in better shape, having lost some weight and gained some muscle, now at 275 pounds.
He has an opportunity this preseason to show he deserves more reps in the regular season.
Although it’s a big year for Leal, he stopped short of calling it a “now-or-never year.”
“It’s now for me,” Leal said. “I wouldn’t say now or never for the season, but it’s now for me.”