{"id":856662,"date":"2026-04-06T10:07:22","date_gmt":"2026-04-06T10:07:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/856662\/"},"modified":"2026-04-06T10:07:22","modified_gmt":"2026-04-06T10:07:22","slug":"former-steelers-s-kyle-dugger-ready-for-fresh-start-in-cincinnati-after-rough-two-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/856662\/","title":{"rendered":"Former Steelers S Kyle Dugger Ready For ‘Fresh Start’ In Cincinnati After ‘Rough Two Years’"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Steelers opted not to re-sign S Kyle Dugger, by all appearances, but he is happy to land on his feet in the division with the Bengals<\/a>. Following a tumultuous period of his career, he is looking forward to finding stability in Cincinnati. Now on his third team since the start of last season, he\u2019s looking ahead, not backward.<\/p>\n

Speaking to the Bengals\u2019 website<\/a>, Dugger called signing with Cincinnati a \u201cFresh start and a new opportunity\u201d. That was something that could have never come easy with the Steelers, as they only acquired him mid-season. \u201cIt\u2019s been a rough two years. I\u2019m thankful where I am\u201d, he admitted.<\/p>\n

Kyle Dugger began losing playing time while in his final full season with the Patriots in 2024. He played even less\u2014significantly less\u2014to start last season, and eventually the Steelers acquired him. There, he played the final nine games. Even with the Steelers, however, they curbed Dugger\u2019s playing time by the end.<\/p>\n

In the final game of the regular season, Dugger only played 29 of the Steelers\u2019 defensive snaps. He only played 32 in the Wild Card Round loss, but that represented an even lower percentage of the total. His workload dropped below the 50-percent mark in what proved to be his final game with the Steelers.<\/p>\n

While in Pittsburgh, he did intercept two passes. Dugger scored on a pick-six against the Bengals<\/a>, in fact, giving the Steelers a much-needed win. That was with Joe Flacco playing quarterback,\u00a0 though, and he\u2019s very excited about the Joe Burrow offense.<\/p>\n

\u201cJoe Burrow and I were in the same draft class and I\u2019ve seen the things he\u2019s done\u201d, Dugger said, noting the offense is the first thing he thinks about regarding the Bengals\u2014which is probably the case for anybody who has to think about the Bengals at any point.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s one of the best quarterbacks I\u2019ve played against and their offense is one of the, if not, the most talented in the league\u201d, Dugger added. \u201cJust the potential to win a lot games and play at a high level as a team. That\u2019s what I know\u201d.<\/p>\n

The Steelers went 5-4 in the regular season during Kyle Dugger\u2019s time there, but he\u2019s going to a Bengals team that finished the season 6-11. Of course, they didn\u2019t have Burrow for most of the year. But they did have Burrow the previous season and still missed the playoffs that year.<\/p>\n

Dugger had nothing negative\u2014or positive\u2014to say about his time with the Steelers. He did have positive things to say<\/a> during the year, though. It just happens to have been a part of the rough two years he referenced, as a mid-season trade probably tends to be. It\u2019s hard to jump on a moving train, let alone to feel like you fit in on the fly. He also spent last offseason rehabbing, so he is grateful to go into this offseason fully healthy.<\/p>\n

In nine games, Dugger recorded 42 tackles, 2 for loss, with 1 sack, 2 interceptions, 5 passes defensed, and 1 touchdown with the Steelers. On paper, those are pretty solid numbers, but Pittsburgh felt it could do better<\/a>. Thus far, the team has signed Jaquan Brisker, and is also getting DeShon Elliott back. Elliott\u2019s injury last season is what prompted the Steelers to trade for Dugger in the first place. And now they\u2019ll face him twice a year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Steelers opted not to re-sign S Kyle Dugger, by all appearances, but he is happy to land…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":856663,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2055],"tags":[256,7,7882,6,520,57,2360,426],"class_list":{"0":"post-856662","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-pittsburgh-steelers","8":"tag-cincinnati-bengals","9":"tag-football","10":"tag-kyle-dugger","11":"tag-nfl","12":"tag-pittsburgh","13":"tag-pittsburgh-steelers","14":"tag-pittsburghsteelers","15":"tag-steelers"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116357212003971842","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/856662","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=856662"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/856662\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/856663"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=856662"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=856662"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=856662"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}