The Pittsburgh Steelers are now in Latrobe at Saint Vincent College, where they have held their training camp sessions since 1966. While the vast majority of the legwork of building the 90-man roster is done, there is always some fine tinkering to do. Now it’s time to figure out who is worthy of a roster spot, and what their role will be.
The team made some bold moves this offseason and in some areas of the roster look quite a bit different than they did a year ago. That would especially be the case at wide receiver and inside linebacker, where they’re bound to have new starters.
How will those position groups sort themselves out? How will the young players advance into their expected roles? Will the new coaches be up to the task? Who is looking good in practice? Who is sitting out due to injury?
These are the sorts of questions among many others that we have been exploring on a daily basis and will continue to do so. Football has become a year-round pastime and there is always a question to be asked, though there is rarely a concrete answer, as I’ve learned in my years of doing this.
Question: How secure is Kameron Kelly’s grip on a roster spot?
Considering the fact that he sort of came out of nowhere, first-year defensive back Kameron Kelly sure seems to be in good with the Steelers. He has even spent a lot of time running with the starters, both in the spring and then in training camp, including the first preseason game, when Sean Davis was out due to injury.
He appears to be the only other safety they really trust at the free safety spot, or at least the one they’re most comfortable with, and given that, it’s almost hard to imagine at this point that he’s not going to make the team, which is pretty remarkable given his lack of experience. But then again, their safety group isn’t particularly deep this year.
Even with it likely that the team will only carry four safeties in 2019 after bringing six into the 2018 regular season—that was made even more likely with Mike Hilton playing safety in last week’s game), it still seems that Kelly has an inside track to a roster spot.
Does he really? And if so, how secure is that lead position? Both Jordan Dangerfield and Marcus Allen were on the team a year ago, and they seem to like both, at least when they’re mentioned. Allen in particular seemed to be envisioned for a larger role this year, which hasn’t yet materialized, and at this point you have to wonder if it will.
Kelly has gotten a couple of passes, but overall, I don’t think the general consensus is that he has done anything too spectacular. Perhaps they don’t need him to be spectacular—just steady.
