Short at safety thanks to multiple injuries and illness, Jalen Ramsey’s role will shift to cover the Pittsburgh Steelers’ last line of defense in Sunday’s game against the Indianapolis Colts. Speaking with Steelers.com’s Bob Labriola in their weekly pre-game interview, Mike Tomlin confirmed Ramsey will exclusively play safety in today’s game.
“We moved Jalen Ramsey exclusively to safety this week, to offset,” Tomlin told Labriola when asked who would assume communication duties at safety. “Jalen has played outside corner, he’s played nickel corner, he’s played safety.
“Given the circumstances, we felt it was prudent to lock him down specifically at free safety, and so he’ll be a constant hub of communication to assist all of those potential candidates who I mentioned in processing and playing.”
DeShon Elliott suffered a potentially season-ending knee injury against the Green Bay Packers. Jabrill Peppers injured his quad mid-week and was ruled out Friday. Chuck Clark got sick and was downgraded to out Saturday, and Pittsburgh opted against elevating newly signed S Darrick Forrest from the practice squad. It left the team with just Juan Thornhill and Kyle Dugger, traded for on Thursday, as available safeties on the roster.
Enter Ramsey. Of course, him playing safety isn’t new. It’s something he’s done since training camp and throughout the regular season. Most of his work had come when Pittsburgh was playing its base 3-4 defense. Per our charting, 47 of his 48 snaps this season have come in that grouping. Against the Colts, it’ll be full-time.
That leaves Darius Slay, Joey Porter Jr., and Brandin Echols as the team’s top three corners. The trio will all share the field in the team’s nickel packages. In base, it remains to be seen who will be odd-man out. Porter won’t exit but Slay was removed from that grouping last week, though the team opted to keep Ramsey at cornerback. That won’t be an option this week, meaning Slay’s snaps could tick back up. Or the team could replace him with Echols, who began eating into Slay’s snaps last week.
Ramsey will help as a communicator but also against the run. Playing safety makes him more inactive and involved in fitting the run, something key against the Colts’ red-hot offense. Running back Jonathan Taylor entered Week 9 as the NFL’s triple crown leader in carries, rushing yards, and touchdowns. He’s on pace to rival the numbers he posted in 2021 where he finished with 1,811 yards and 18 touchdowns.
In fact, his pace could rival LaDainian Tomlinson’s historic scoring 2006 season, finding the end zone 28 times on the ground. Taylor has 12 touchdowns through eight games.
Pittsburgh’s defense is up against the wall. The secondary is struggling and dealing with injuries. It stacks the odds against them, but there is precedent of this unit surprising before. In 2022, a battered group starting the likes of James Pierre, Terrell Edmunds, Josh Jackson, and Tre Norwood defeated Tampa Bay Buccaneers QB Tom Brady. The Steelers will need to do the same today to avoid a three-game losing streak.
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