The Pittsburgh Steelers ended the 2019 season much as they did the 2018 season, by allowing their playoff fate slip out of their grasp. Slow starts and slow finishes permeated both campaigns, with strong runs in between. But while the results were the same missing the playoffs, the means were quite different.
Yet again, they find themselves undergoing the exit meeting process earlier than anticipated, which means so are we. But that they still managed to go 8-8 without Ben Roethlisberger, and with the general quality of play that they faced along the way, I suppose things could have been worse.
While we might not know all the details about what goes on between Head Coach Mike Tomlin and his players during these exit meetings, we do know how we would conduct those meetings if they were let up to us. So here are the Depot’s exit meetings for the Steelers’ roster following the 2018 season.
Player: Kameron Kelly
Position:S
Experience: 1 Year
Precipitous rise, precipitous fall. That is the story of Kameron Kelly’s 2019, which began with him playing in the Alliance of American Football. Through his performance there, during which he became a standout player in the failed league, he signed a free agent deal with the Steelers in the spring.
Thanks to injuries suffered by Sean Davis throughout the offseason process, Kelly got plenty of opportunities to see high-quality reps, and that eventually led to his being given the chance to start in the season opener against the New England Patriots, while Davis was recovering from a lower body injury. Davis returned in Week Two, only to suffer a season-ending injury in that game.
Kelly remained the number three safety even after Minkah Fitzpatrick was brought in, with Davis placed on injured reserve. For much of the season, he did see work in the dime defense, and even ended up registering an interception over the course of the year.
Toward the end of the year, he would end up getting himself arrested, and the Steelers responded promptly by releasing him. After all, he was not a player who was significant enough to deal with such offseason issues, and his situation was different from that of Anthony Chickillo’s, who was also arrested mid-season.
Marcus Allen, a fifth-round pick in 2018, was called up from the practice squad to take his spot on the 53-man roster, but depth very much remains an issue at safety behind Fitzpatrick and Terrell Edmunds. Allen is the only other safety ‘of note’ on the roster, and calling him ‘of note’ is dubious in itself. Jordan Dangerfield, who was a restricted free agent, may be re-signed, but they will still have to address the position, and Kelly will not be a part of that again.
