It was just a one-game sample size, but Jalen Ramsey looked like a natural for the Pittsburgh Steelers at free safety against the league’s No. 1 offense in Week 9. Mike Tomlin has already committed to Ramsey remaining in that position for Week 10, but will that continue for the rest of the season? DC Teryl Austin was noncommittal during his Thursday media availability.
“We’ll see. We’ll keep Jalen where we need to keep him,” Austin said via TribLive’s Chris Adamski on X. “Obviously he did a heck of a job last week playing full-time free safety for us. Really did a good job of, he can overlap, he can run. He’s just a good football player.”
Part of the reason they are coy is likely the state of the secondary depth chart at the moment. Brandin Echols is now the starting slot, but he’s also listed as the top backup at both outside corner positions. And we all know that Darius Slay exits every game for at least a handful of snaps with an injury scare each week.
Cory Trice Jr. had a chance to return from IR as a top depth piece on the outside, but he suffered a setback with a new knee injury. Given his history, they can’t rely on him contributing.
That leaves James Pierre as the fourth corner on the Steelers’ depth chart. If a corner gets injured, and especially if that ends up being Echols, the Steelers will be in a bind at nickel corner. At that point, they may have Juan Thornhill go back to free safety and put Ramsey in the slot, unless they want to experiment with Chuck Clark or Jabrill Peppers there.
They view Echols as a key enabler of their reshuffled secondary.
“From the beginning, the one thing we really liked about [Echols] was his competitiveness and how he approaches each day. That’s what gave us the confidence to move Jalen back [to safety] full time,” Austin said via Adamski on X.
Teryl Austin on how faith in Brandin Echols made the re-make of the Steelers D possible:
"From the beginning, the one thing we really liked about him was his competitiveness and how he approaches each day. That's what gave us the confidence to mov Jalen back(to safety) fulltime."
— Chris Adamski (@C_AdamskiTrib) November 6, 2025
This is part of the reason why I was hoping that cornerback was the Steelers’ top priority at the trade deadline. That way they could ensure Ramsey stays at free safety, where he appears to be helping the team the most. There remains some hope they can add a corner such as veteran Asante Samuel Jr., who was just cleared for football after undergoing spinal-fusion surgery in April. He reportedly has a visit scheduled with the Steelers next week.
The new-look secondary may be the key to unlocking all the talent on a Pittsburgh defense that struggled for the first two months of the season. It would be ideal if the Steelers could make Ramsey’s position change permanent.
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