Now that the Pittsburgh Steelers’ 2023 season is getting underway after the team finished above .500 but failing to make the postseason last year, we turn our attention to the next chapter of Steelers football and everything that entails. One thing that it means is that some stock evaluations are going to start taking on more specific contexts as we get into the season, reflecting more immediate plusses and minus rather than trends over long periods. The nature of the evaluation, whether short-term or long-term, will be noted in the reasoning section below.
Player: S Miles Killebrew
Stock Value: Down
Reasoning: The veteran safety and captain of special teams had quite possibly the worst game of his entire career. He had more special teams penalties than he had special teams tackles—and he had two tackles, which is remarkable.
The Pittsburgh Steelers will be facing quite arguably the game’s greatest special teamer in its history in the New England Patriots’ Matthew Slater. The Steelers believe that they have their own special teams “ace” in Miles Killebrew, but you wouldn’t know it by Sunday’s game.
The eighth-year veteran managed to get penalized no fewer than three times on Sunday against the Arizona Cardinals on special teams, having played just 16 special teams snaps. It was quite the series of gaffes, including a running into the kicker penalty, which was declined, somewhat surprisingly.
Arizona punted from its own 29-yard line and only got off a 42-yard punt to the Steelers’ 28. For some reason, they decided not to accept the five-yard penalty on 4th and 10 in the hopes of improving on their punt yardage.
Killebrew recorded the tackle on the following punt after the offense went three and out, but his second special teams tackle, coming later in the game, would draw a facemask penalty that tacked on 15 yards at the end of a seven-yard return, putting the Cardinals at the Steelers’ 48. They got into the end zone four plays later.
In between, he managed to run into the Cardinals’ punt returner after he had signaled for a fair catch. It is unclear to me why he did not avoid or was not unable to avoid contact with the returner, but that cost him and the defense another 15 yards. Instead of starting on the 19, the Cardinals started on the 34.
The defense was able to force a three and out and the ensuing punt resulted in a touchback, so things could have been worse, but it’s unfathomable to think of your supposed best special teams player having this bad of a game.
Even QB Ben Roethlisberger mentioned it on the DVE Morning Show yesterday, saying that one of the reasons he knew it would be just one of those days for the Steelers was because even Killebrew was off. On the season, he has 14 tackles, most of them on special teams (he has 33 defensive snaps in total) and a safety as a result of a blocked punt. He has three accepted penalties on the season, including a hold on a return back in Week Four.
