2023 Steelers Training Camp Battles: Strong Safety
The Pittsburgh Steelers have finished minicamps for the year and now Steelers fans are ready for “Training Camp 2023.” Training camp starts on July 27, 2023 at St. Vincent’s College in Latrobe (PA) and we will preview position battles everyone should look for as the summer unfolds.
One of the more interesting storylines that occurred over the duration of the Steelers offseason was how the team valued 2018 first round pick Terrell Edmunds. Edmunds, the starting strong safety over the last five seasons, did not have his fifth-year rookie option picked up heading into the 2021 season, which made him a free agent in 2022.
Pittsburgh waited nearly a month to re-sign Edmunds just days before the 2022 NFL Draft, securing their starter alongside free safety Minkah Fitzpatrick. However, they only inked Edmunds to a one-year deal worth $2.5 million, which could hardly be considered a “big contract”.
This also made Edmunds a free agent again this spring, where it appeared the Steelers still had interest in retaining the 26-year-old. However, the 75-game starter packed his bags to join Super Bowl runner-up Philadelphia, on a similar one-year signing.
Now the Steelers are poised to find his replacement among a group of journeymen and unknowns.
The first of those journeymen joined the team last season. Damontae Kazee, who has split time at both free and strong safety first with the Atlanta Falcons, and then one season with the Dallas Cowboys, was thought to be a “third” safety in Steelers subpackages. However, Kazee was injured during training camp last season and started the year on injured reserve.
He would return in Week 10, following the Steelers bye, to help turn the team around, as Pittsburgh finished their last nine games with a 7-2 record.
During this period, Kazee’s snap totals would incrementally rise, but he would not supplant Edmunds outright as a starter, though he would spell both Fitzpatrick and Edmunds when one or the other was unavailable to play.
Now the starting role that Edmunds has vacated appears to be Kazee’s to lose. Over the course of his nine games played last season, Kazee had two interceptions: Edmunds has zero in 15 starts and only five throughout his entire tenure in the Steel City.
It’s likely that Kazee’s presence, along with his ability to make splash plays, awarded him a shot to become the team’s longer-term answer at the strong safety position, although the safety just turned thirty years old this year and may not be around in Pittsburgh for too long of a spell.
The next logical suitor could be former seventh round draft pick Tre Norwood, who Mike Tomlin once described as a “Swiss Army Knife” rather than listing him as a safety.
Norwood received heavy amounts of playing time early in the season while Kazee was on IR, playing a good 35% of the opening season game against the Bengals as well as large swaths of time against the Jets, Bills, and Bucs. Yet, fans know how these games generally went for the Steelers – and that could indicate why Norwood’s snap counts dipped to 21 total plays combined against the Dolphins, Eagles, and Saints.
He would not see a single defensive snap following the Saints game, which was when Kazee returned to full health.
Now Norwood will be poised to compete for the starting strong safety spot, but may have to compete just for playing time outside of special teams duties. The Steelers brought in another veteran safety to do just that in former 17th overall pick Keanu Neal.
Neal had a similar path as Kazee did to the Steelers, having played in Atlanta and also Dallas, before spending last season with Tampa Bay. His familiarity with Kazee, as well as his first-round pedigree likely made him attractive to the Steelers.
His versatility is also something Mike Tomlin openly values, as Neal has flirted moving around the secondary and even playing linebacker during his time in the pros.
Turning 28 later this month, Neal has a chance to enter Pittsburgh with no pressure and ease his way into a defined role that could see him taking the same route as Kazee did to eventually starting. However, it would appear Neal’s main crux during his career has been staying healthy, as the former 2017 Pro Bowl player missed ample amounts of time in the two seasons following those honors.
Yet, by being used in subpackages to cover running backs and tight ends, Neal could preserve himself, while he’s still incredibly young – he will enter his eight NFL season having started in the league at age 21. If his health prevails and Tomlin taps into what made him a first-round pick in 2016, Neal could be a surprise signing that will greatly benefit the Steelers.
I should mention Miles Killebrew in this article, though the Teryl Austin favorite is routinely relegated to being a special teams ace and more than likely won’t factor into any sort of “camp battle” with the aforementioned names for extensive playing time on the defensive side of the football.
