After doing a 2023 coverage study on safety DeShon Elliott, I wanted to learn more about how he fared with the Miami Dolphins last season in run defense. Today, let’s look at and provide some data context on Elliott, along with the 2023 Steelers safeties (with at least 150 run snaps) to get a gauge of the loss/gains from a stats perspective.
Let’s start with run snaps and average depth of tackle for quantity of plays and yardage comparatively:
Elliott provided the most run snaps of the players we’re focused on, with 367 of them, which tied for 33rd last season. That (or more) would surely be welcomed in Pittsburgh, considering the perilous depth chart during the 2023 season. The visual emphasizes that further, with every Steeler below league average.
Damontae Kazee, who is still under contract, led that group with 280 (52nd). Star safety Minkah Fitzpatrick was only available for 260 (59th). Former Steeler Keanu Neal, who is still a free agent currently, had the least run snaps of the 83 qualifiers (minimum of 150 run snaps) with 154.
Neal was the only player in our sights with an above the mean average tackle depth, at 7.1 yards which tied for 39th, but his low opportunities are also an important factor. The rest of the group tied for a much lower 64th, with that below average number coming in at 9.0 yards.
Of course, the position typically plays further off the line of scrimmage. Especially free safeties that align deep, which is a critical piece of the puzzle.
Let’s add that context with the safeties alignment rates:
| PLAYER | SAFETY% | BOX% | SLOT% |
| DeShon Elliott | 59.7 | 27 | 11.4 |
| Damontae Kazee | 81.8 | 8 | 7.5 |
| Minkah Fitzpatrick | 43.8 | 25.5 | 24.2 |
| Keanu Neal | 23.7 | 41.4 | 25.1 |
First, we get context to Elliott’s 2023 season, playing the majority of his snaps in deep alignment (second among focused players). He was second on the list in box percentage to Neal, with those opportunities vacated barring a resigning. That could be a spot we see Elliott in quite a bit. He was third in slot snap rate, so that could happen as well.
That would be huge in allowing Fitzpatrick to play the deep free safety spot more, where he tends to shine brightest. Unfortunately, Fitzpatrick has been on “clean-up duty” in the run game very often in recent years. Hopefully, Pittsburgh’s front seven can limit runs to the second level more in 2024.
Pittsburgh’s battered safety room also led to Fitzpatrick having more varied alignments last year, as the table emphasizes. For comparison, he played 68.2-percent at deep safety in 2022, so much more than his 43.8-rate last season. Here’s to hoping Elliott, and the rest of the position group, can stay healthy and gel as a unit including position roles and in run defense.
Now let’s look at types of run tackles, solo vs. assisted:
Encouragingly, Elliott leaps to the top of the list with 25 assisted run tackles, the most of NFL safeties in 2023. Very impressive, pointing to him not giving up on plays and ensuring the opposing running back goes to the ground. He also had 28 solo run tackles, tying for 29th. So, the volume was there indeed.
Despite missing time, Fitzpatrick was comfortably above the mean in assists with 16, tying for 14th. Nice to see him and Elliott both providing that for their respective teams in 2023. Kazee and Neal were well below average in both, with the former’s number more concerning considering his higher snaps, and that he is still wearing the black and gold.
Next, I wanted to see how the players fared in a “hit or miss” type view with stop percentage, which uses the successful play rates formula (less than 40% on first down, 50% or less on second down, and third or fourth down plays kept from a first down or touchdown) and missed tackle percentage:
The good news for Elliott was a strong 7.0 missed tackle rate, tying for 10th-best among the 83 qualifying safeties. The other side of the coin was a low 1.4 stop rate, which tied for 68th, his lowest ranking in the study. Yes, my earlier point of deep alignments lessens the chance for safeties run tackles to become stops, but this view shows Elliott was well below average at his position.
Fitzpatrick was the only player above the mean in each, with a particularly strong 2.5 missed tackle rate that ranked fifth among NFL safeties last year. Between him and Elliott, Pittsburgh has two safeties that were in the top 10 in missed tackle rates from 2023. Here’s to hoping we see more of that on display this season.
Neal had a well above average stop rate that led focused players. This does make sense with the other elements in the article, including the lowest snaps among qualifiers, and the highest box rate of players we’re focused on. He was below average in missed tackle rate though.
Kazee had the worst marks in each, well below average in both, unfortunately. He did align deep the vast majority of the time, but emphasizes some painful struggles from 2023. This makes the results for Fitzpatrick and Elliott all the more encouraging, and hopefully we see a solid tandem on the back end as they did for their squads in 2023.
Let’s look at a more total view of how the players fared in the run game with PFF run defense grades along with points above average per play (a players EPA responsibility on run plays using the total points system that distributes credit among all players on the field for a given play, and accounts for defenders in the box, blown blocks forced, broken tackles, and turnovers) from Sports Info Solutions (SIS):
Taking the fuller picture into account, we see Fitzpatrick and Elliott landed above the mean in both data points. Elliott had the best 83.5 PFF run defense grade of the focused group, which ranked a strong eighth among the qualifiers. His SIS points above average metric came in just above the mean, for a still respectable 31st ranking.
Fitzpatrick also ranked in the top 10 in run defense grade at 83.1, ranking just behind Elliott at ninth. Fitzpatrick’s points above average came in at 20th, best among the highlighted players on the visual. Thankfully, more encouraging facts for the new teammates.
Kazee was below average in both once again, while Neal tied for 11th in points above average, but had a below average run defense grade that ranked 49th.
To close, here’s a wrap up table and conclusion:
Overall, Elliott had very strong results as a run defender in 2023. He led the entire NFL in assisted run tackles, and also had encouraging top ten ranks in PFF run defense grade (eighth) and perhaps most important, missed tackle rate (tenth-best).
Elliott also had above average marks in solo run tackles (T-29th), SIS points above average (31st), and run snaps (T-33rd). All refreshing to learn, my favorite being recent availability considering the lack of it at the position for Pittsburgh last season.
Elliott’s weaknesses were fewer, and didn’t set off alarm bells for me considering he played nearly 60-percent of his snaps in deep safety alignment. This greatly effects average depth of tackle and stop rate, where Elliott tied for 64th and 68th.
Very encouraged by the results for Elliott, faring much better than I anticipated going into the study. Pairing him with Fitzpatrick, who also posted strong marks despite his injury shortened season, leaves me very optimistic that the unit will trend positively in run defense and beyond if they can stay healthy. Can’t wait to see how it all shakes out.
