With Pittsburgh Steelers FS Minkah Fitzpatrick already ruled out for Thursday Night’s game against the Tennessee Titans, the Steelers are going to need DB Elijah Riley to step up and play a bigger role for the defense. Riley knows it’s going to take a group effort and talked about replacing Fitzpatrick and his preparation on the short week.
“We’re all pros. We haven’t all reached All-Pro, but obviously we wanna win games as a collective. We’re not expecting anybody to be Superman, but we want everybody to be able to do the job, and when the opportunity comes, make the most of it,” Riley said Monday via video posted to Steelers.com.
Riley also said that he, along with fellow safety Miles Killebrew, will need to turn some of their attention from their primary special teams roles to getting more work on defense.
“Obviously, we approach it with a little more readiness,” he said. “Being teamers usually throughout the week, we’re not as fluid in the defensive movement in practice and stuff. Now this week we got to prepare as such. My individual preparation doesn’t change. I prepare every week like I’m supposed to be on the field, and I’m gonna continue to do so with maybe a little more intensity.”
Riley’s logged 133 special teams snaps this season, 71% of Pittsburgh’s total. That’s been his key role, and he’s only played 10 snaps on defense, all of which came in Week Two against the Cleveland Browns after Fitzpatrick exited with an injury. Riley had a key sack of QB Deshaun Watson in that game and was solid in the preseason. While he might not see a ton of snaps as a rotational backup safety, there’s no doubt he’s gonna look to make another key play for the Steelers.
Pittsburgh’s safety depth was a bit of a concern heading into the season, with just Fitzpatrick, Keanu Neal and Damontae Kazee legitimately viable options. That lack of a fourth safety on the roster is coming back to bite Pittsburgh a little bit now. But Riley has looked serviceable in limited action, and there are ways to rotate guys around to try to mitigate the loss of Fitzpatrick.
But there’s no denying that Fitzpatrick is a major loss to Pittsburgh’s secondary. No one can replicate him, hence why Riley said they can’t have one guy expecting to be Superman. It’s going to take a group effort to replace everything they’re losing with Fitzpatrick, from tackling ability which would’ve been especially useful against Titans RB Derrick Henry, to coverage ability and ball skills. It’s not going to be easy, but it’s something the Steelers are going to have to do. Guys like Riley and Killebrew are going to be key pieces defensively, even if that’s a little outside their usual role and expectations.
