The Pittsburgh Steelers have suffered a number of injuries on defense throughout the 2023 season, and they have affected nearly every position group. First it was Cameron Heyward’s groin in Week One, then the inside linebacker group had Cole Holcomb and Kwon Alexander go to season-ending IR in back-to-back weeks. More recently, S Keanu Neal was sent to IR with a rib injury following the Steelers’ Week 10 win over the Green Bay Packers. Of course, Minkah Fitzpatrick has been dealing with a hamstring injury for the last month, which didn’t send him to IR, but he has missed four straight games. Finally, Elijah Riley was sent to IR with a high-ankle sprain last week.
That is a lot of injuries at the safety position, especially compounded by the inside linebacker injuries. These guys are up the middle of the defense a lot of the time and thus act as the central communicators for the team. One guy who has stepped up over the last two weeks at safety is second-year S Trenton Thompson.
Current Steelers CB Patrick Peterson and former Steelers CB Bryant McFadden discussed Thompson’s play on their weekly podcast, All Things Covered on Tuesday.
“Trenton’s been phenomenal since he’s gotten to us in Latrobe, I believe around Week Two of camp,” said Peterson. “Very, very physical guy. Coach [Mike Tomlin] had to whoa him a bunch of times in camp ’cause he wanted to hit anything that was moving. To see that transfer over into the game…to see his confidence level continue to grow. It just gave the coaching staff confidence for when his number was called that they’ll be safe and confident that he’ll go out there and produce for us as he did throughout the preseason.”
Thompson made one of the key plays of the Week 12 victory over the Cincinnati Bengals. The final score was 16-10 and the Bengals would have come out of a drive to open the thrd quarter with at least a field goal if not for Thompson’s first NFL interception. It was a 10-play drive, and the Bengals were in the red zone when Thompson intercepted the ball. With as tight of a score as it ended up being, that was a big-time play in a big-time moment.
“It was a matter of time that his number was called,” Peterson continued. “Great tackler, great open field tackler, great ball skills and really now getting comfortable in that communication role of getting guys lined up. Check ball situations and things like that. So he’s definitely starting to grow into his own.”
With Fitzpatrick on track to come back in Week 13 against the Arizona Cardinals, it will be interesting to see how many snaps Thompson gets. The starters will presumably be Damontae Kazee and Fitzpatrick, but Cameron Heyward recently said that Tomlin challenged Thompson to get an interception and that if he did Tomlin would “beat on the table for him.” Obviously, he did get that interception so we will see what Tomlin beating on the table for him means.
