PITTSBURGH (93.7 The Fan) – Jalen Ramsey’s position flexibility has been something the Steelers coaches have been excited about since acquiring him from the Dolphins in the offseason. Now head coach Mike Tomlin wants him to play in one spot.
Safety.
“His positional flexibility is an asset to us,” Tomlin said at his weekly news conference Tuesday. “It gives a lot of people things to work on. But certainly, under the circumstances that we're under right now, we deemed that appropriate as we did last week in terms of nailing him down there.”
For the first time in his NFL career on Sunday, Ramsey played every snap, all 78 of the Steelers defensive snaps, at free safety. The team is without safety DeShon Elliott (Injured Reserve) and safeties Chuck Clark and Jabrill Peppers missed the game Sunday. While no turnovers, Ramsey played solid against the Colts. He had five solo tackles including a key stop of tight end Tyler Warren in the red zone.
“I thought their global overall experience and talent showed up as the game wore on,” Tomlin said. “So excited about an additional week's work.”
Famously, former Steelers first-round pick Rod Woodson moved from being an All-Pro cornerback to safety helped by a nearly season-ending knee injury when he was 30. By age 34 he was a free safety and made four straight Pro Bowls and led the league in interceptions at age 37. Many see those same traits in Ramsey.
“I think some of the things that you talk about when you first talk about the safety position are intangible qualities, are not necessarily things that to measure,” Tomlin said. “He's got really good instincts. He's really good passion for the game, he studies the game and I think those are some things that really enable him to play back there and that's such a major component of that position.”
“His talents are obvious, you know. On his tackling, his range, his physicality, but the more subtle things, the intangible things I think are the things that are exciting for us because as he gains more experience back there, it's reasonable to expect some of those talents to show up more frequently.”
That will open the door for Brandon Echols to get more reps at the nickel or slot, which he did against Indy. It also provides an opportunity for Peppers to play there.
Ramsey showed a little of those intangible skills Saturday as quarterback Aaron Rodgers told us all about his speech to the team and how that captured the group. Rodgers believed it set the tone for what happened Sunday. Tomlin said he asked Ramsey to speak, wanting to keep those words private, however you could tell his what he said, and then his play, impacted the team.
“He's got a lot of experience, NFL experience, world championship experience, and I'm thankful that he was willing to share that with his teammates,” Tomlin said.
On and off the field.