The Pittsburgh Steelers made a big secondary swing Monday by reportedly signing Tampa Bay Buccaneers CB Jamel Dean to a three-year, $36.75 million contract hours after the legal tampering began. Clearly, a starting-level contract and addition who should play a key role in Pittsburgh’s 2026 defensive outcome.
So who are the Steelers getting in Dean? Is this the right move? As our Josh Carney did examining WR Michael Pittman Jr., let’s break down the good, bad, and everything else of Dean’s game.
Run Defense/Tackling
A big corner at 6-1, 206 pounds coming out of Auburn for the 2019 NFL Draft, Dean’s size helps him. As does his aggression. With just seven career tackles for loss, he’s not terribly active behind the line of scrimmage, but Dean holds his own.
He has a downhill mentality and the ability to beat receiver blocks. Watch him attack this block and shed the receiver to the bottom of the screen. Keeps the ball inside to his help. This is technically a pass but a run game extension, getting the ball to RB Bijan Robinson in space.
Dean is No. 35 in all these clips.
Last season, Dean made 14 tackles (nine solo) against the run across 14 games. Similar numbers to Joey Porter Jr.’s 15 total tackles and seven solo stops, also in 14 games. Dean active in the run fit and will put his face in the fan, making this tackle on RB Christian McCaffrey even if it still resulted in a positive run for San Francisco.
He’s entering the picture from the right side below.
Couple more examples of Dean coming down off the edge.
As a tackler in coverage, Dean delivers power and plays with an edge. Even if the form isn’t sound, you love the attitude of throwing the receiver down at the end in the first clip. In the second, his size and body blow makes sure the receiver isn’t picking up any additional YAC. Dean played big against WR Drake London.
I’m sure Pittsburgh saw that and imagined how he’d play against Tee Higgins twice a year.
Coverage
Through and through, Dean is a press corner. He’s well over six-foot, 200 pounds and plays every bit to that skillset. Aggressive and hands-on, Dean’s best reps come disrupting and jamming routes before they begin. At the line, he can take on big receivers like Carolina’s Tetairoa McMillan and Atlanta’s Drake London. Clips against both.
Bottom of the screen against Atlanta, top of the screen versus Carolina.
Dean can bump and run downfield and beats up on smaller receivers. That’s where he shines. He’s the right cornerback in all these clips.
Dean also shows a good football IQ and understanding of down and distance. Where the sticks are and the route concept the offense is trying to run to convert. He’s a good communicator who adjusts when motions create stacks, getting depth below so both cornerbacks aren’t on the same level and prone to getting picked/rubbed on the goal line.
Top of the screen here.
In zone, Dean can match and read the quarterback’s eyes. In Cover 2 here, he sinks and gets depth while reading the quarterback. Squeezing the vertical route behind, he finds the ball, times his jump, and high points it with his size and length. Interception.
Top of the screen.
But Dean is a linear athlete much more comfortable pressing up early in the route. He’s tight-hipped, something that’s been evident since his poor short shuttle/three-cone times coming out of Auburn. Short-area movements and change of direction is where he gets exposed. Watch him fall as he tries to gather and change directions covering the first route. In the second, he loses the receiver at the top of the route.
When Dean can’t play physical and top down, he gets in trouble. Bottom of the screen in both clips.
He’s an aggressive corner who can be late to open his hips in off coverage where he looks far less comfortable. That gets him prone to being beat deep.
Couple examples. In the third clip, he opens up in time but can’t recover to get back in-phase with McMillian, who beats him for the only touchdown PFF charged him for all year. It was Cover 0 so Dean had no help but he lost this island rep.
Top of the screen in the first two, bottom against Carolina.
Usage
In 2025, Dean logged 661 total defensive snaps. Of those, 586 came as an outside corner. All but a single snap of those came on the right side. With the exception of his rookie year where he had a 50/50 split, he’s been on the right side the majority of the time. In total, here’s his career left/right outside corner breakdown.
Left Corner: 489
Right Corner: 4,183
Meaning, nearly 90 percent of his career outside corner snaps have come on the right side. Joey Porter Jr. has been a versatile outside corner throughout his Steelers’ career, but it seems much more likely Pittsburgh will play sides with Porter on the left and Dean on the right in 2026.
Dean occasionally rotated to safety in post-snap coverage disguises, though he didn’t look comfortable with his angles there. Tampa Bay blitzed him a handful of times and Dean proved effective with a sack/forced fumble against Brock Purdy and the San Francisco 49ers. Really nice play here.
Health hasn’t been Dean’s friend. In seven years, he’s never played a full season. Over the past three, he’s missed a combined 12 games. Turning 30 in October, there’s concern his injuries will only increase and worsen.
Final Thoughts
There’s no question about the type of player Pittsburgh’s wanted at corner pretty much since Omar Khan became general manager. Big and physical/long cornerbacks who can challenge tall receivers. Dean is more built and physical than Porter but both use their size well to squeeze throwing windows. Dean likes to get hands on and disrupt off the line whereas Porter likes to punch and ride receivers through the route. Porter is more smooth and fluid while Dean is scrappy.
New defensive coordinator Patrick Graham is scheme-versatile but is on-record preferring to blitz and play man coverage on third down. Doing so requires having cornerbacks who can play on islands. Dean is comfortable doing that.
His size and physicality fits the division well, especially for two yearly matchups against the Cincinnati Bengals. Add in Jalen Ramsey, who could play some nickel, and the Steelers have big-time hitters and bodies at cornerback. Not to mention DeShon Elliott at strong safety.
I preferred not to add a cornerback nearing age 30. Not that Dean is as old as Patrick Peterson or Darius Slay, but the Steelers have been burned by hoping future production follows past production and instead getting diminished returns. Hopefully, they aren’t falling into the same trappings.
Despite running a fast 4.30 40 coming out of school, Dean’s game isn’t built on pure speed anymore. His game runs a little hot and cold, though he rebounded nicely in 2025 after taking a paycut offseason to stick on Tampa Bay’s roster. Pittsburgh is rewarding him for it.
It helps his contract is team-friendly and if he underperforms, Pittsburgh can bail after the season. Still, the team can’t keep rolling through different veteran cornerbacks each year and must find stability.
Dean is a good scheme fit, and “AFC North player” as I’m sure Khan would refer to it, but has holes in his game that must be masked and can’t significantly worsen. If you’re looking for an arbitrary letter grade, put me down for a B.
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