DK’s Daily Shot of Steelers: Jalen Ramsey at safety?

DK’s Daily Shot of Steelers: Jalen Ramsey at safety?

[Music] listener of this program stopped me on Fifth Avenue yesterday carrying all kinds of packages for delivery and I’m only sharing that part so that you can know I’m talking about him right now. And he asks me as as people will do just something about the football team. And I I got to tell you that what he asked me should not have put me on the spot. Like I should have been prepared with a response and and I wasn’t. And I’m going to share with you what that was and why it was. Good morning to you. Good Tuesday morning. I’m Dan Kvachovic of DK Pittsburgh Sports. This is Daily Shot of Steelers. It comes your way bright and early every weekday if you’re into hockey andor baseball. I also offer daily shots of Penguins and Pirates, the other two teams in town that I cover. Hope you’ll give those a chance as well. So, the question was something totally innocuous like, “What do you think? Do we have a shot?” And maybe I just didn’t have enough caffeine to that point or whatever, but I kind of hemmed and hot and I looked at him and I said, “You know, ask me after I know where Jaylen Ramsay is playing.” I don’t even know why I answered that way, his face kind of tilted a little bit, like what? And the more I thought about it. And uh now I started elaborating and poor dude standing there holding all these packages. But the the longer I I I began to rattle, the more it made sense. And here’s why. This defense needs to have its fangs back. And that can come in so many forms. In fact, it should come in so many forms that by the time it happens, we aren’t even 100% sure which form mattered more than the other one. So, I’m going to start with one premise here, and that is that if the Steelers are going to take some special step in the 2025 season, it’ll be defensively. Yes, the offense has to do its part. I don’t believe that the offense needs to be something that’s super special. I believe that that is the case of the defense. Not saying that they will be. I’m saying that they would need to be. And for that to happen, they are going to have to get back to getting after the other team in the back field without counting entirely and shamelessly on TJ Watt to do so. Lots of different ways they can, right? Derek Harmon can show everybody why he’s the impact firstrounder that the Steelers are expecting that he’ll be. And by the way, bang, like instantly. Keanu Benton can show everybody that the Steelers are making some kind of mistake and underestimating him if they choose to leave him off the field in favor of Harmon when they go with two down linemen. The other, of course, being Cam Hayward. Pressure from the inside, pressure from the middle can make all of the difference when it comes to chasing people around in the backfield. Why? Because you force them to choose a direction. You force them to say, “Huh, TJ Watt’s over here, Alex Heismith’s over there. I probably should just get rid of this football.” Patrick Queen and the inside linebackers can be utilized. gasp in some kind of blitzing roles from time to time. And I was about to say that nobody from the secondary ever does that either, except that now you have Ramsay on your roster. There’s still no word, and there’s not going to be word until we get to Latroe as to where he’ll play, or at least where he’ll play most often. Here’s one small insignificant vote for Ramsay staying at slot corner. I’m going to give you a couple of reasons for that. This past season in Miami, out of 1,027 total snaps, he logged 728 of those as the boundary corner. But he also logged 185 in the slot and 80 in the box. Not everything went great. He was still sharp in coverage, but he’d also get charged with 14 missed tackles, six more than he ever had in any previous season. And yet, continuing to swing this pendulum, he also had a careerhigh of six tackles for loss and four quarterback hits. Second reason, I don’t want him at safety. I know that comes up and I know that’s going to continue to come up and maybe it’ll even come up in Latroe. Maybe the Steelers will see some kind of opportunity to generate the second great phase of Ramsay’s career and shove him, I don’t know, way back in center field like they had Minka Fitzpatrick. And to that I say no thanks because I’m tired of watching really supersonic illustrious elite defensive backs lining up 65 yards off the ball. Ramsay has always been a playmaker. And even going back to his Jacksonville prime, he was never limited in what that meant. It wasn’t just about interceptions. It wasn’t just about passive defense. He could do everything. He was omnipresent on the field. I’m not expecting him to be that. But I am expecting that that would be the style of football with which he himself is most comfortable. Great. Use him in that way. Bring him right up front. Let him show the teeth. Let the other quarterback think about having to face Ramsay. Better yet, let the other quarterback have to occasionally flee Ramsay. Mix it up, become more dynamic, reinstall some Dick Labauishness to this defense. And when we come back, J1Q, [Music] this segment of Daily Shot is brought to you by our good friends at Mike’s Beer Bar. They’re located on Federal Street, directly across from PNC Park. Mike has more than 500 beers on tap, including from more than 50 local breweries. Stop in and say hello. Tell Mike we sent you. Mike’s Beer Bar. [Music] Time now for J1Q. Chase asks, “Does the fact that TJ Watt was misused during that playoff game in Baltimore, as well as the misuse of Minka Fitzpatrick all season, give you pause as to the quality of the Steelers defensive coaching? And if so, what does it mean for the upcoming season?” I’m going to take your question literally, Chase, and say no, it does not give me pause. I I was given pause on this subject a long time ago, my man. Listen, there are a lot of goofy narratives out there about the Steelers, uh, specifically related to Mike Tomlin. Things that get discussed or blown up probably more than they should. Just as an example, the non- losing seasons, which is just a non thing in Pittsburgh. It’s certainly a non thing for the Steelers. it gets discussed by media people who don’t cover the team. But one that hits home and should is the repeated pattern in these playoff games, especially early in these games. It it’s it’s not just the final score. Like you can look at losing to the Ravens 28-4 in that game you’re describing and it doesn’t sound so bad. Well, they were down big time early, 31-7 against the Bills. It wasn’t really quite like that. But then you go before that and you have a 42-21 loss in Kansas City. You have 48-37 loss to Cleveland of all teams in 2020. 45 to 42 against Jaylen Ramsey and those Jaguars in 2017. And there’s nothing that exposes coaching, either good or bad, like a playoff. That gets discussed a lot more in the NHL and in Major League Baseball than it does in the NFL. The reasons for that being that those are series strategic adjustments have to be made in hockey. Seeing the same pitchers and hitters becomes an adjustment unto itself in baseball. But it’s also true in football. There’s an extra emphasis on spilling out the playbook, reaching into the hip pocket, as Mike Tomlin once said, for those plays that you’ve been saving up all year long, those really special ones that no one would see coming. And when the first thing that happens to you in a playoff game is that you’re getting obliterated and the second thing that happens to you in that playoff game is that you’re taking way too long to adjust to how you’re getting obliterated. And that’s what happened in Baltimore. You’d better believe that’s a reflection on the coaching. And you’d better believe that’s one of many reasons that when that game was over, when that season was over, that I publicly called for the Steelers to find themselves a new coach after all this time. because that specific element of the result is so tired and so indefensible. So no, it’s not giving me pause. It gave me pause a long time ago. And as hopeful as I can be about some of the personnel moves that have taken place, particularly since that’s what we’re talking about today on the defensive side of the ball, I can also sit here and fairly wonder if it’ll matter how much talent they have on defense because we haven’t seen this defense out coach anybody since Leau. We have seen them out play a lot of people. We haven’t seen them out coach anybody since Leau. And listen, sorry, not sorry here. I’m not going to apologize for stating something that I feel is backed by way too big a mountain of evidence at this point. Appreciate the question. Appreciate everybody listening to Daily Shot of Steelers. Don’t forget that we have a double shot coming up today. That’s at 400 p.m. Eastern. It’s live on our YouTube channel as well as on our own app and website at DK Pittsburgh Sports. Hope you can stop by. [Music]

Jalen Ramsey at safety? And devalue him why, exactly?

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