The Pittsburgh Steelers’ first four practices of training camp are pad-less and, by nature, less meaningful than the rest. Real camp begins Tuesday, but the performance outliers on either end are still worth discussing.
The Athletic’s Mike DeFabo named two players who have stuck out to him the most, as well as one who has disappointed.
“Jalen Ramsey, to me, has been outstanding,” DeFabo said Monday via 93.7 The Fan’s Pomp and Joe Show. “He had an interception of Aaron Rodgers that was more athletic and instinctive than anything I’ve seen from Minkah Fitzpatrick in five years. And in addition the ripple effect is just so significant because nickel position has become so much more important in the NFL. Mike Tomlin’s preferred scheme defensively is to play a lot of man coverage, and by bringing in a guy like Jalen Ramsey, the Steelers are going to be able to get back to that.”
Mike Tomlin rarely talks up his team at this point in the offseason but was practically gushing about the potential of his secondary at the start of camp. He said the cornerbacks are capable of matching up against anybody in the league in man-to-man defense with Joey Porter Jr., Darius Slay, and Ramsey as the top guys.
Losing Fitzpatrick was a tough pill to swallow as a former All-Pro and a leader of the defense for years, so it’s excellent to hear that Ramsey is already looking like a great return on investment. The Steelers are going to use him out wide, in the slot, and as a safety. He will be a true chess piece for them.
On the other side of the ball, he named another newcomer to the Steelers.
“DK Metcalf’s a grown man,” DeFabo said of his second early-camp standout. “That guy is an absolute beast. and he seems to be working really hard. I think that he’s going to be a huge piece of this offense.”
He didn’t expand a ton on Metcalf, but his impact is already apparent. The first day was a bit off between Rodgers and Metcalf, but their chemistry has been great over the last three days with the two connecting for multiple touchdowns. He made Darius Slay look silly off the line of scrimmage on one of his touchdowns during a Seven Shots drill.
As for DeFabo’s one disappointment, OT Broderick Jones earned that unfortunate distinction.
“It’s way too early to put too much stock in what we’ve seen from Broderick Jones, but he has been beaten a couple times,” DeFabo said. “I’m not going to read into anything that an offensive lineman does in shorts and a T-shirt. I’m willing to give him the benefit of the doubt, but he has gotten beaten a couple times, which has been a bit disappointing.
This is a critical year for Jones, who is going into his third NFL season. The Steelers have to make a decision on his fifth-year option next spring, and he’s done nothing to earn that in his first two seasons. To add injury to insult (literally), Jones exited practice early on Sunday, the final day without pads. He had a soft-tissue injury, per head coach Mike Tomlin.
The hope has been that flipping Jones back to his natural left tackle position will help turn his career around, but that hypothesis hasn’t held up so far. And missing any amount of time will only set back his progress even further. It’s early, but one of the biggest concerns of the offseason is already starting to come to life.
