When the Pittsburgh Steelers and Baltimore Ravens kick off their rivalry for the 2024 season in Week 11 at Acrisure Stadium, the Ravens will see some familiar faces on the other team. Patrick Queen, DeShon Elliott, and even Anthony Averett are all former Ravens who now call Pittsburgh home.
Elliott hasn’t been on the Ravens since 2021, but he spent the first four seasons of his career there before playing one year a piece with the Detroit Lions and Miami Dolphins. Now that he is with the Steelers, he realizes he is right where he is supposed to be.
“I got drafted there [in Baltimore], so for those first four years, it was home,” Elliott said in an interview with KDKA’s Rich Walsh via an all-access video posted on the Steelers’ YouTube page. “I always was excited to play here [in Pittsburgh]. I was all excited when we played those away games here, but being on the other side of it, I’m way more blessed to be here. I feel great being here. It feels like home for me. It feels like this is where I belong, so I want to work my butt off to be able to play here for as long as I can.”
Elliott played for a youth football team called the Mesquite Steelers in Dallas, which was his favorite team growing up. He jumped on the opportunity to play for the Steelers. If you remember back to his introductory press conference with the team, he pointed to the Steelers logo on the wall behind him and said, “This is real football.”
Both Elliott and Queen are leaning into being on the other side of the Steelers-Ravens rivalry. Queen said back in March that he looks forward to playing the villain.
Elliott was asked what he used to think when he would play against the Steelers as a member of the Ravens.
“Exactly what everybody thinks. That’s a hard-nosed football team led by a fantastic head coach,” Elliott said. “And no matter what, he’s gonna make sure we pull out a win. He’s gonna try his best, make sure his guys are ready [and] prepared every Sunday.”
Other than Terrell Edmunds, who was serviceable at strong safety, the Steelers haven’t had an ideal pairing with superstar S Minkah Fitzpatrick. That has made it necessary to move Fitzpatrick around a bit more to cover different holes in the defensive roster and limited his ability to be the elite center fielder that he is. The hope is that Elliott can be that ideal pairing.
With Damontae Kazee being the third safety, it allows the Steelers to move Elliott to the slot at times and put Kazee back at safety in certain subpackages. That would have been Fitzpatrick’s job to move around in the past, but this new configuration will allow him to get back to playing “Minkah ball.”
