Steele Chambers: Ready, Grilling and Able

The Ohio State linebacker enters the NFL draft with a knack for baiting quarterbacks, an eye for great movies and a pantry full of seasonings.

Steele Chambers is serious about steak. Ask him how he likes to season a ribeye before grilling and you are likely to get a detailed answer.

“You know what? Let me just pull out my rubs here,” the former Ohio State linebacker said during a recent interview. Over the phone, the distinctive thunk of a kitchen cabinet opening could be heard. 

“OK, Salt, pepper, a little bit of this steak rub from Killer Hogs, and I’ll use what’s called Hardcore [Carnivore] Black. It’s a beef seasoning my roommate Cade [Stover] found. It’s awesome.”

Chambers and his roommates keep an entire pantry full of seasonings. They held what Chambers called a “good old family dinner” for teammates and friends every Monday night during the college football season. Ribs. Ribeyes. Burnt Ends. Chicken. Side dishes, usually prepared by girlfriends. Sometimes, over 20 guests attended.

Chambers concedes that Stover, the Buckeyes tight end who also enters the NFL next month, is the team’s top grillmaster. “I’d be afraid to do ribs by myself,” he admitted. But the roommates have been cooking together for two years, and both Chambers and fellow linebacker Tommy Eichenberg also know their way around the grill and the pantry. 

Teammates cooking for teammates. It sure sounds like the sort of bonding experience to make a big fuss about: an expression of leadership, initiative, brotherhood or some other football virtue. 

Chambers doesn’t see it that way. “I guess we bond,” he said. “But we don’t really think about it. We just do it. It’s just another day for us.” 

Putting a Head in a Dude’s Chest

Chambers was a four-star recruit as a defender and a running back out of Blessed Trinity Catholic High School in Roswell, Georgia. Some programs saw him as a linebacker. Chambers chose Ohio State because he wanted to play running back. He saw some action as a true freshman in 2019, rushing 19 times for 135 yards. Playing time and touches were hard to come by in an offense featuring Justin Fields, J.K. Dobbins, Chris Olave, Garrett Wilson and others.

After seeing even less playing time in the 2020 season, Chambers made the transition back to linebacker. “I wasn’t too good at it,” Chambers said of playing running back. “Plus, we had TreVeyon Henderson coming in. I wasn’t going to beat him out.”

Chambers was more of a nickel defender than a traditional linebacker in high school. The Buckeyes needed him in the box. The toughest part of the transition? “Dealing with the big heavies in the middle,” he said. “I never had to battle it out with a 320-pounder before. That was something.”

Chambers was technically raw, but his spirit was willing. “Coach Wash [former linebacker coach Al Washington] just wanted to see that I was willing to put my head in a dude’s chest. I showed that I’m willing to risk a shoulder to go hit Dawand Jones in the chest. After that, he started teaching me technique.”

Photo provided by Steele Chambers

Ohio State coaches were willing to overlook some mistakes in his first year on defense because Chambers flew around the field trying to make plays.

“He sees, he goes,” former defensive coordinator Kerry Coombs said in 2021. “He’s not always right where he’s going yet because he needs that experience. But when he sees it, he goes.”

Jim Knowles replaced Coombs as defensive coordinator in 2022 and installed a new scheme. Chambers admitted during spring practice that year that he “cringed” when watching Michigan film from the previous season.  “I hadn't seen it until then, and now that stuff's pretty sickening. That was pretty rough, and I feel like that game determines what kind of season we have.”

Under Knowles, Chambers finished second on the Buckeyes to Eichenberg in tackles in 2022. He edged his roommate out for the team lead in 2023. He became Ohio State’s most reliable coverage linebacker, rarely leaving the field despite the team’s depth at the position. 

But can we back up for just a moment? What’s it like to hit Dawand Jones, now a 375-pound tackle for the Cleveland Browns, in the chest when you only weigh 226 pounds?

“You’re not going to move him,” Chambers said. “He’s going to move you. It’s a matter of how much you give up.”

Kids These Days With Their War Movies and Steaks

Chambers isn’t just an athlete and a dry-rub connoisseur. He’s also a movie buff and a dog lover.

During an Ohio State media session last August, Chambers turned the tables on reporters by asking their opinions on the Barbenheimer phenomenon. Having only seen Oppenheimer, he offered a detailed critique, then a ranking of his favorite Christopher Nolan films. (He prefers Interstellar).

Chambers particularly enjoys military movies: Fury, Lone Survivor, Tears of the Midnight Sun. Oh, and lighter military fare as well. After all, his three-year old husky is named Maverick. “In a year or two, I’m going to get a rescue, and I’ll probably name him Goose.” Chambers said.

NFL coaches should absolutely adore a young man who loves a big dog, a thick steak and a good war movie. So if Chambers were to sit down and watch a movie with a future coach, what would he pick?

“If you just want to watch a movie and not use your brain at all, The Big Lebowski is the answer,” Chambers said.

Really? This is an NFL coach we’re talking about. What about something gritty and prestigious like Dunkirk or All Quiet on the Western Front?

“We’re gonna sit down, we’re gonna turn our brains off and just watch a good movie. I don’t need to impress him with my knowledge of stuff. We’re just gonna watch a Dude going around trying to get his carpet back.”

Baiting Stetson Bennett

According to Lance Zierlein’s NFL.com scouting report of Chambers, “His background [as a running back] seems to have spawned a natural feel for where the runner is headed, and he often ends up in or near that lane.”

Is that an accurate assessment? 

“It certainly helps, being a running back,” Chambers said. “But there’s a lot of work that leads up to that. A lot goes to it: coaches telling me what film I should be watching, then me watching the film and doing the work on my own.”

Indeed, what looks like a natural feel may well be the result of preparation. Perhaps the most memorable play of Chambers’ career, for example, was his interception of Stetson Bennett in the 2022 BCS playoffs against Georgia.

“That was a film play,” Chambers explained. “They ran the same play against someone earlier in the season. One of the linebackers overran the wheel route. They cut under it, and Stetson Bennett threw a touchdown or a big gain.”

Having spotted the tendency and a fellow defender’s blunder on film, Chambers baited Bennett into making a bad decision. “I overplayed it. I turned when the running back cut inside. I turned and waited for it, and luckily he threw it.”

Here’s the play. Even the announcers note that Chambers appears to know where Bennett wants to go with the football.

That interception highlights Chambers’ speed and range, in addition to his instincts and preparation. After all, film study alone cannot help a defender run stride-for-stride down the field in man coverage against Kenny McIntosh.

Chambers has had a productive pre-draft workout season. He had the best 20-yard shuttle (4.23 seconds) and three-cone (7.13 seconds) results of the linebackers who participated in combine drills, besting Eichenberg and Clemson’s Jeremiah Trotter Jr., among others. Longtime draft analyst Tony Pauline said that Chambers “looked terrific in drills” at Ohio State’s Pro Day, noting that Chambers met with the Saints and Vikings and calling him “one of the most underrated players” at his position.

So what is Chambers hearing about his draft stock?

“I don’t know,” he said. “I don’t really listen to much of it.”

A Dude Abides

To ask a trite question asked 1,000 times at every pre-draft event: what is an NFL team getting when they draft Steele Chambers? 

My answer: a rangy, scrappy, slightly-undersized off-ball linebacker who can shine in coverage, tackles well in the open field and finds his way to the ball carrier. 

Chambers’ answer: “A dude that likes doing hard stuff, likes working, loves life, and has a good attitude all the time.”

The love of life – of football, family, movies, romping with Maverick, grilling for his teammates – shines through when speaking to Chambers. 

“Football is one of the best things in life,” he said. “But after it’s done, you have so much life to live. If your whole identity is football, then once you’re done – and you’re inevitably going to be done – you’re just going to be an empty, hollow shell.”

Chambers will soon return to Georgia to await the draft. He’ll be reunited with Maverick, who has been at home with his mother.  “She’s an empty nester,” Chambers said. “He’s basically her son.”

Does that mean that Maverick might find himself in a custody battle when Chambers leaves the nest for good to enter the NFL?

“He’s getting pampered no matter where he is,” he said. “He’s living life to the fullest. If I’ve got a problem with my mom loving my dog so much that she doesn’t want to give him up, then I’ve got a good life.”

A healthy mindset, to be sure. But Maverick would probably like just a little taste of that ribeye.