The Steelers stuck Kyle Dugger into the lineup with minimal preparation last week due to necessity, but what about now? Against the Colts, they were down both Chuck Clark and Jabrill Peppers. Clark is back, though Peppers’ status remains unclear due to a quad injury. So what is the plan at safety this week?
“We’ll just continue to look at it and see what’s best for us”, DC Teryl Austin said, via the Steelers’ media department. “We’ll see how we end up the week in terms of practice and how guys look. I’ll make a decision as we get closer to the game”.
The Steelers acquired Kyle Dugger via trade last week, and he practiced for the first time last Thursday. He played on Sunday, logging virtually every snap, and acquitted himself well in the process. But if they have at least Clark, and possibly Peppers, too, does that change the dynamics?
Austin won’t say, though the depth chart tells a different story. The Steelers list Dugger and Jalen Ramsey as the starting safeties for the Chargers game, with no “OR” designation. Of course, teams are not bound by some piece of paper in terms of the personnel they deploy.
Still, it’s hard to see the Steelers going from playing Dugger all game with almost no work to then platooning him. After all, they did still have Juan Thornhill against the Colts. They just didn’t want to use him on defense. And is Chuck Clark that much better than Juan Thornhill?
with DeShon Elliott potentially on the shelf for the rest of the season, Ramsey and Dugger might be the Steelers’ best option at safety. Of course, that also depends on what they have to work with at cornerback, and Darius Slay is a concern. Pittsburgh is kicking the tires on Asante Samuel Jr. next week, though, assuming he doesn’t sign elsewhere beforehand.
Kyle Dugger is a six-year NFL veteran with 82 games under his belt. But his resume is not dissimilar to the rest of the Steelers’ safeties in that regard. Clark, Thornhill, and Peppers are all former starters now vying for supplemental roles. One would hope that Dugger is just a cut above them, and perhaps he is.
But we won’t know that after just one game, even if that one game came after limited practice time. Obviously, he’ll be more up to speed for the Chargers game, but one hopes that doesn’t mean a more complicated defense, considering how well a simpler approach seemed to work last time out.
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