Last season, the Pittsburgh Steelers’ defense suffered through some serious communication issues. Players caught out of position and players not on the same page resulted in far too many big plays by opposing offenses. This wasn’t a new problem, but it definitely got worse last season.

Linebacker Payton Wilson was asked about that on Tuesday and wasn’t shy about calling out the communication issues from last season and taking it even further by putting those problems on his former teammates.

“You don’t have to game plan to help people out anymore,” Wilson said. “We now have guys who you can put on an island… and they’re going to get the job done, and you can trust in that.”

When Wilson says people, it’s not hard to piece together who he’s talking about. Cornerback Donte Jackson was the starter at outside cornerback last season and the only cornerback who isn’t back from last season. He’s been replaced by the combination of Jalen Ramsey and Darius Slay, both of whom are far more experienced and should be able to work well in the system.

Yes, the Steelers did trade away safety Minkah Fitzpatrick but we have a hard time believing the communication issues i the secondary were his fault. Could I be wrong? Absolutely and if so, all the better he’s gone. This defense has too much talent to not perform better and so we are with Wilson that this group is better now becaus of the new players.