If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. At least that’s the approach I hope Mike Tomlin and the Pittsburgh Steelers take with their new safety tandem of Jalen Ramsey and Kyle Dugger. The two played nearly every snap as Pittsburgh’s defense shut down the NFL’s top offense on the way to an unlikely 27-20 victory over the Indianapolis Colts.
Ramsey was one of the top cornerback and safety prospects coming out of the 2016 NFL Draft, but he’s primarily been a corner in the NFL. He’s played a mix of the two dating back to training camp with the Steelers, but they were forced to shift him to full-time safety against the Colts in response to DeShon Elliott and Jabrill Peppers’ injuries and Chuck Clark’s illness that forced all three to miss the game.
On first watch, Ramsey performed very well in his new role. He was an enforcer over the middle of the field with a couple big hits, he was strong in run support, and nothing went over the top to beat Pittsburgh deep.
Here is a click-and-close tackle by Ramsey, who sniffed out a pass to Tyler Warren and came downhill to make the tackle and prevent any yards after the catch.
Perhaps even more impressive was Dugger. He didn’t begin practicing with the team until Thursday and then played 77 of 78 possible snaps at safety against the Colts. Safety is very much a position in which knowing the defense and communication system matters. Credit to him for hopping on the moving train and asking all the right questions to his teammates and coaches to be in the right spots.
The box score shows four total tackles for Dugger. He wasn’t the most visible player throughout the game, but that should be viewed as a positive. If he was a liability, it would have been pretty apparent given the circumstances. And the Steelers certainly wouldn’t have played him almost every snap.
Mike Tomlin revealed that he gave Dugger a game ball for his efforts, and it’s reasonable to expect him to improve with more time to learn the defense and what is expected of him in that strong safety role.
Most notably, Juan Thornhill was active for the game but played zero snaps. He is typically more of a free safety than a strong safety. It makes sense that the Steelers wanted Jalen Ramsey in for every snap, but they could have mixed and matched Ramsey in the box and rotated Thornhill in at times. Especially if they were concerned with Dugger’s level of readiness.
The cornerback room didn’t suffer as a result of Ramsey playing exclusively at safety against the Colts. That’s important when deciding if they can afford to move Ramsey to safety full-time. Brandin Echols stepped into a larger role with Joey Porter Jr. and Darius Slay the top two options. Echols played really well, and Porter had a nice game outside of some penalties.
If the Steelers do continue with the current setup, perhaps they consider trading for one more corner before Tuesday’s deadline.
Thrown together out of necessity, Jalen Ramsey and Kyle Dugger delivered exactly what the Steelers needed on defense. Until proven otherwise, Mike Tomlin should resist tinkering with the lineup and let it continue rolling as is.