Film Room: The struggles of Mark Barron

The Pittsburgh Steelers signed Mark Barron in free agency to help add versatility to the middle of the defense. His play has been less than stellar, so we decided to take a closer look at the tape.

You don't have to go far on social media to find Steelers fans complaining about, well, just about everything these days. With the team sitting at 1-4, psychiatrists may may get more business if they relocate to Pittsburgh. 

Despite the poor record and slow start, the defense is starting to turn things around. They've played much better in the last three weeks, including their best performance of the season last week against Baltimore. 

One thing that many Steelers fans are complaining about is Mark Barron. He was signed this past offseason as a free agent, who last played with the NFC Champion Los Angeles Rams. As a former safety, Barron's versatility at the inside linebacker position was attractive to a defense that could not stop short-to-intermediate passes over the middle in 2018. 

Barron's performance in the first three games was quite a bit underwhelming. He looked slow and would get lost in coverage too often. For a player that was brought in specifically to aid the defense in coverage, this is a way to make yourself a very unpopular player. 

In the Monday night game against Cincinnati, Barron turned things around. He led the team with 11 total tackles and tallied his first interception of the season on a 4th down throw by Andy Dalton into the end zone. 

Barron has seen the most playing time at inside linebacker so far. That amount of playing time increased even more when Vince Williams was sidelined for multiple weeks with a hamstring injury. Barron has also been given the green dot on more than one occasion, bearing the responsibility of being the defense's primary signal-caller.

During the Baltimore game, if you spent any time on social media, you probably saw Steelers Nation bring out the pitchforks again for Mark Barron. Barron did leave the Baltimore game early with a hamstring injury, so his time was limited on the field this past Sunday.

I decided to take a deeper look at what happened with Barron, looking for real issues, or seeing if this is just a witch hunt and Barron is the scape goat for the defense's problems.

Blown coverage or miscommunication?

I've got two specific plays I took a look at, but the same break down in coverage occurred on both plays. 

On the first play, Baltimore quarterback Lamar Jackson doesn't notice the break down in coverage and takes off and runs to the other side of the field that Barron is on. 

Barron immediately goes to cover the receiver running upfield, but cornerback Steven Nelson is already running with the same receiver. Nelson actually breaks off the coverage to go cover the tight end in the flat left completely uncovered. 

Just looking on that side of the defense, you may think that the defense is in zone coverage. But Devin Bush, Mike Hilton, along with Nelson act like they are in man coverage. 

Maybe they were supposed to be in zone, maybe they were supposed to be in man coverage. Either way, the player with the green dot has to be able to communicate to his teammates what's going on and who to cover. 

In this second play, it's almost the same exact breakdown. Only this time, the receiver left uncovered runs a crossing route and Lamar Jackson doesn't miss that one. 

The Steelers' defense has serious issues with miscommunication. So either Barron isn't properly communicating coverages on the field or he's blowing coverages himself. Either way, this is a serious issue. 

The defense can't continue to leave the underneath routes in the middle of the field uncovered. It's one of the reasons they struggle with getting off the field on 3rd downs. In order to become a more complete unit, these blown coverages have to be minimized.

Run Support

Mark Barron has played better in run support, but it's been a bit inconsistent. 

In this play here, the Steelers are actually in a 3-5-3 defense, with Barron, Bush, and Vince Williams all on the field for this formation. This is a package they used multiple times against Baltimore. 

As you can see, the running back cuts back through the weak side B gap, which is primarily Barron's responsibility. Barron overcommits to the direction of the handoff, leaving that weak side wide open.

Having numbers on the side of the handoff, Barron should have had the instinct to fill his gap, or maybe even hide behind the A gap block to bait the running back. Either way, the hole is left wide open and Baltimore gets a solid gain. 

It can't get any worse than this

This play was by far Barron's worst of the game, and maybe even worst of the season. 

The defense is in zone coverage here. Barron goes toward the inside as if to cover the tight end in man coverage or looks to the running back in the flat. Either way, neither are his responsibility and he allows the tight end to get wide open for a big gain down the field.

The other part of this play that is not a good look is the effort after the coverage is blown. There is almost no urgency to at least try to make up for the blown coverage. After he blows his assignment, at least hustle down the field to show some kind of acceptance of responsibility for that play.

Final Conclusion

These are only a select few plays from one game, but these symptoms have been evident most of the season. 

Barron has been a big disappointment at inside linebacker for the Steelers so far. Barron has yet to practice this week because of his hamstring injury, so it's unclear whether he'll play in Los Angeles on Sunday night.

His play has to improve, especially in coverage. This defense is starting to turn a corner and all parties involved need to be on top of everything. Blown assignments in the middle of the field won't cut it. 

I believe Barron can be a good player for Pittsburgh. He has the skill set to do so. These mental mistakes have to be minimized, or we'll be seeing a lot more Devin Bush and Vince Williams this year.