The Pittsburgh Steelers will not be doing anything for several weeks yet, as we enter the meat of the dead time of the offseason between mandatory minicamp and training camp. That doesn’t mean the NFL media wheels suddenly stop turning, or that football discussion goes on hiatus along with the players, however.
After all, the spring drills don’t really do a ton to sate the thirst for knowledge of the diehard fan. For one thing, there is no fan access to OTAs and minicamp, the way there is for most of the team’s training camp practices. For another, they haven’t even gotten pads on yet.
So there might be several weeks of no football activities, but that doesn’t mean that the anticipation for training camp isn’t slowly building up during that time. There are plenty of questions surrounding the team generally and around certain specific players that can only be answered starting in the grasses of Saint Vincent College. Everybody has their favorite players they want to see in Latrobe as well.
One player that Gerry Dulac is looking forward to seeing is first-year defensive back Kameron Kelly. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette’s veteran beat writer mentioned the former 2018 college free agent and refugee of the AAF when asked in a recent chat about a surprise name to look out for starting late next month, saying, “he has a chance to make the team”.
Kelly played both cornerback and safety with the San Diego Fleet in the AAF, and the Steelers list him just as a defensive back, because they don’t want to limit his potential versatility. During OTAs, however, he did have the opportunity to work with the first-team defense for a bit when Sean Davis was out nursing a minor injury of some kind.
Pittsburgh carried six safeties into the regular season a year ago, but two of them are gone. Nat Berhe lasted only his one-year contract, while Morgan Burnett was released after playing through his first season on a three-year deal. Both were first signed by the team as unrestricted free agents in 2018.
Since then, the Steelers have not moved significantly to address the safety position, evidently feeling comfortable with the group of Davis and Terrell Edmunds as starters and backed up by Jordan Dangerfield and Marcus Allen.
Kelly spent some time in the offseason with the Dallas Cowboys last year before being released prior to the start of the preseason. Outside of him, rookie college free agents P.J. Locke and Dravon Askew-Henry represent the new blood at the position.
So if the team does carry more than four safeties, there certainly is a fair chance that Kelly ends up making the roster. Of course, he will have to earn his way through special teams, first and foremost, as is the case for almost all players at the end of the roster.
