With the Pittsburgh Steelers trading FS Minkah Fitzpatrick to acquire CB Jalen Ramsey and TE Jonnu Smith, there’s an open question of who is going to replace Fitzpatrick in Pittsburgh. Ramsey, despite spending his career at cornerback, has been floated as an option, and in the past, Ramsey has said he believes he could do it, comparing his style to Hall of Famer Charles Woodson.
Antrel Rolle went through a similar position switch, moving from corner early in his career to safety where he turned into a two-time All-Pro. Speaking to Kyle Odegard for Gambling Industry News, Rolle also compared Ramsey to Woodson and offered advice for what it takes to switch positions.
“The first piece of advice is to always work the craft that you had before. Still work on that corner craft, because it’s going to make you that much better as a player, that much more versatile. When I made the transition to safety, yeah, I grew a different mentality, but in my heart I stayed a corner. If I stayed a corner, when I was lined up on the Wes Welkers, the Calvin Johnsons, my mentality never switched. I was just a more physical corner now.”
Rolle added that it takes a different “mental capacity” to understand the playbook, since you need to be more aware of what teammates are doing at safety compared to corner. He thinks Ramsey has the ability to play both because of the “competitive dog” he has, which along with Ramsey’s body type, led Rolle to compare him to Woodson.
Ahead of a 2018 matchup against Ramsey with the Jacksonville Jaguars, Mike Tomlin said that Ramsey was the best safety prospect as well as cornerback prospect in the 2016 NFL Draft. Rolle has the unique experience of someone who made that switch from a full-time cornerback to a full-time safety, and while he does think Ramsey has the capability to do it, it’s not as easy as just throwing the seven-time Pro Bowler at safety and expecting the same level of play.
It could be especially tough for Jalen Ramsey to play safety regularly this season given that he was traded to the Steelers in late June and needs to get familiar with a new playbook. Rolle emphasized the need to really get in the playbook to figure out what the whole defense is doing on each play compared to the “very basic” responsibilities of being on an island at cornerback.
“Now you have to know, if that three-technique is stunting to the ‘B’ or the ‘A’ gap, this hole may open up. If they pull, you’ve got to cancel out a gap,” Rolle said. “That’s a totally different vocabulary than what we learned out there on the island. It’s very basic. There’s not too much you need to know out there on an island.”
The Steelers seem to value Ramsey’s versatility, and he could certainly see some snaps at safety this season. But it might be a little premature to expect him to play the position permanently this season, and it’s more likely that he’ll move around defensively. A switch to safety full-time is a possibility down the line, but it doesn’t seem as if that’s viable for 2025.
