Tucker: Hampton the Keystone of the Steelers D

Former NFL OL Ross Tucker is doing some work for SI, and yesterday he spent the day at Steelers camp, and had some interesting notes. Here’s one on Casey Hampton:

Casey Hampton is the keystone of the defense—no matter how much he weighs. Any team that runs a 3-4 knows it all starts with the nose guard. If you don’t have a player sturdy enough to hold the point against constant double teams, you might as well just give up.

Hampton’s weight has been debated the past couple of years, but it really doesn’t matter whether he is 335 or 355 or whatever. His job is to play head up on the center and take care of anything that happens on either side of him in the gaps between the center and his flanking guards. Even if all else fails, he has to take care of the playside gap, or the direction in which the ball carrier is going, letting the inside linebacker stay home for the cut back. In order to help lever the center and maintain his positioning, Hampton lines up almost a full yard off the ball. That’s in stark contrast to the casual fans’ image of the nose guard who lines up as close to the center’s facemask as legally possible.

Click HERE to see the rest of Ross’ article