The Steelers added a lot of pieces in the secondary this offseason, so where exactly does Jalen Ramsey fit now? The coaches haven’t offered any specifics yet, and perhaps they’re not even sure right now. There’s certainly time to figure everything out, after all. But beat writer Ray Fittipaldo has some idea of how he thinks they’ll end up using him this year.
“I think they view Jalen Ramsey as kind of a positionless player who’s gonna line up in a different spot, play to play, game to game, week to week. I just don’t think he’s gonna be locked into safety, slot corner”, he said on 93.7 The Fan recently. “His days as an outside corner are probably over”.
The latter part is obvious by now. The Steelers may have believed Jalen Ramsey was still a lockdown corner against the best of the best when they traded for him last year, but they learned the hard way that he was not. He thought he was, but guys like Tee Higgins disagreed.
The Steelers soon after had a good excuse to take Ramsey out of that niche. After DeShon Elliott’s injury, they moved Ramsey to safety, having previously played mostly in the slot. He was still playing a decent handful of snaps as an outside cornerback, too, however. Either way, Fittipaldo doesn’t anticipate that he’ll be anything resembling stationary in his role.
“I think they’re gonna move him around, and if they’re facing a big-time pass-catching tight end one week, he might be the guy who matches up on that guy in the slot”, he said. “If it’s a different kind of matchup, maybe he’s back in deep center field”.
Some speculated early in the offseason the Steelers might want to move on from Jalen Ramsey. He has a big contract, and he is approaching the end of his career. What is the vision that this new staff, especially DC Patrick Graham, has for him?
Since the start of the new league year, Pittsburgh has added CB Jamel Dean and S Jaquan Brisker to its secondary. The Steelers also retained CB Asante Samuel Jr. and are expected to sign S Darnell Savage. While most of those players are for depth, it gives them more versatility. And it also keeps their options wide open as to how to deploy Ramsey.
One thing the Steelers didn’t have to worry about with Jalen Ramsey last season was availability. He played a career-high 1,104 defensive snaps, no matter where they lined him up. Out wide, in the slot, around the box, back at safety, it didn’t matter. He was on the field, doing something, in some capacity.
But in what capacity can Ramsey best serve the Steelers this season? At this point, the price they’re paying him doesn’t matter. Does a safety-first role best marry his remaining skills with what the roster needs? Should he primarily man the slot, where he can blitz and play the run more impactfully? The reality is they don’t need to have an answer now, and frankly, they probably shouldn’t. This is a new staff with important new pieces; there’s no rush to figure it out on paper when you can do it on grass.
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