Defense preparing to drop a dime on opponents

LATROBE, Pa. -- The Steelers always want to put their best 11 players on the field offensively and defensively, much like any team.

And as they head into the final day of their training camp here Thursday at Saint Vincent College, it's looking increasingly more like their best 11 guys on defense might include six defensive backs.

For a team that was dead last in the NFL against the run in 2021, using a six-defensive back package -- a dime defense -- might not be ideal. But it might be hard to keep their top six defensive backs off the field.

Minkah Fitzpatrick certainly is going to be out there 100 percent of the time. And the coaching staff loves what Cam Sutton brings to the table with his ability to play every position in the secondary -- without having to take a lot of reps there. Add to that group cornerbacks Ahkello Witherspoon and Levi Wallace, and safeties Terrell Edmunds and Damontae Kazee, and it's a group with plenty of starting experience and the ability to hold up and coverage.

But can it be good enough to stop the run?

"I don’t see why it wouldn’t be," secondary coach Grady Brown told me of the dime being more prevalent for the Steelers this season. "It will probably depend on who you’re playing. In our division, it’s a run-heavy (division). We’ve got a lot of great backs, a lot of great offensive linemen in our division, so maybe not so much in division play. 

"But maybe you get out of the division and play these other teams that spread it out a little bit more and are more receiver happy. I think we have Tampa Bay on the schedule this year. I haven’t watched them yet, but there are some of these other places that maybe spread it around a little bit more. I don’t see why it wouldn’t be. That’s just about coaching and game planning and developing opportunities."

The Steelers have toyed around with some different nickel and dime packages thus far in this camp. And they can do so because of some of the versatility they have with not just those aforementioned six players in their secondary, but in second-year player Tre Norwood and Arthur Maulet, as well.

So, we've seen dime packages. We've seen big nickels with three safeties on the field. We've even seen times when Sutton moved back to free safety to allow Fitzpatrick to play down in the slot.

A lot of it is designed to create confusion when opposing offenses step to the line of scrimmage. The key is being able to move Fitzpatrick, the team's best player on the back end, around more than they were able to do so last season.

Fitzpatrick might be the best pure free safety in the league. But opponents also knew exactly where he was going to be most of the time in deep centerfield. He was too easy to avoid. However, if the Steelers utilize their personnel a little differently, as they did when Sutton bumped back to free safety, now Fitzpatrick can do different things to utilize his excellent ball skills.

"Right," Brown told me. "And that’s where you want to be because the quarterbacks in this league are awesome. They’re well-coached. They know what they’re doing. So any confusion we can cause, any uncertainty, anytime we can make the quarterback uncomfortable with what he’s seeing, that increases our opportunity to have success."

The Steelers have primarily been a team that has relied on a nickel package on passing downs in recent years. But that could change in 2022.

• The other two players who might be critical in those packages? Edmunds and Kazee.

At 6 feet 1, 217 pounds, Edmunds is the biggest of the Steelers' safeties. If the team wants, it could drop him down into the box as a slot defender or dime linebacker.

To that point, for the first time in his five seasons with the Steelers, he participated in backs on backers pass rushing drills at Tuesday's practice.

"That was my first time. It was good," Edmunds told me. "It was just being physical and running at full speed and making a move."

It perhaps signals that the team is at least exploring playing him closer to the line of scrimmage and blitzing him more. And Edmunds did a lot of those kind of things in college at Virginia Tech, where he played all over the back end of the defense, including nickel and outside cornerback.

"I think he can do a number of things," Brown told me. "I was talking with (Edmunds) and he told me in college he played corner. That big body with that athleticism, I could see him doing that. But I could see him being the nickel. We’ve seen him play back on the hash. We’re blessed with a bunch of pros with complementary skillsets in the room."

• Kazee, who the team signed to a one-year deal hours after the draft ended this year, is another similar chess piece.

He's been a starting free safety in this league and also has been a nickel corner. Though he's not as physically imposing as Edmunds -- he's listed at 5-foot-11, 174 pounds -- he has shown to be a solid tackler and has good ball skills. Entering his sixth NFL season, he has 12 career interceptions and seven forced fumbles.

"I played wide receiver in high school, so it’s timing up the ball and being in the right position and then just doing it and having the hands for it," Kazee told me of his ability to create takeaways. "Maybe I’m just a little lucky. You’ve got to go get it."

He had several opportunities to make open field tackles in last week's preseason opener against the Seahawks and held up well in those situations, showing himself to be a strong wrap-up tackler.

"He’s a football guy," Brown told me. "I don’t think Kazee would mind wearing full pads every day, as long as his body will hold up. He’s not going to shy away from contact. He likes the physical game, but he’s good in space also. He’s been a good addition."

• Norwood also has looked good in his second training camp with the team. The Steelers might lack some star power on the back end of their defense beyond Fitzpatrick, but they also might not have an obvious weak point.

"The nice thing is when you have those pieces, you don’t feel that you’re outmatched, or you don’t feel like you have a bad matchup that’s not in your favor," defensive coordinator Teryl Austin said of his secondary. "When we get into game situations, that will be discussed and those guys will be used because we do have some quality NFL players."

Antonio Brown once told me a cornerback -- Brandon Boykin as a rookie with the Eagles -- was the candy bar. I asked him what he meant. 

"You know, a sweet matchup," Brown told me.

The Steelers don't have that on their back end. And given the state of their inside linebackers, where Devin Bush hasn't been great, Robert Spillane can't cover and neither Buddy Johnson or Mark Robinson look ready to play, using more defensive backs might be the way to go -- if the matchup is right.

• Some people in the know have suggested to me Edmunds might be better served bulking up and moving to linebacker like his brother, Tremaine, in Buffalo.

But while the Steelers are looking at perhaps using him in the box more than they have in the past, they haven't asked him that ... yet.

"I’m going to leave that up to them," Edmunds said of the coaching staff. "Right now, I’m just working on safety, trying to level that up."

In many ways, the Steelers already use Edmunds in that role -- they just don't call it that.

As you can see, he's already a versatile piece. But the addition of Kazee might allow him to be in the box even more.

• Chris Oladokun finally got his first snaps of 11-on-11 or 7-on-7 work in this training camp on Wednesday, taking a couple of snaps with the scout team.

That, more than anything, is why Mason Rudolph can't be traded. Sure, Kenny Pickett could be the team's backup to Mitch Trubisky. But that would mean the Steelers have two backups who have never taken a snap in an NFL game.

And Oladokun has barely gotten his feet wet in training camp.

If disaster struck, at least Rudolph would be able to help this team weather the storm. If the team were forced to start Oladokun, it would likely be a disaster.

• Jaylen Warren continues to carry a football around, even when he's not part of a play.

He had a run Wednesday that, as the backs are instructed to do, he took all the way to the end zone, sprinting down the field. He then turned around, ran 80 yards back upfield where he tossed the ball he had in his hands back to a ball boy and then ran to the sideline and picked up the ball he's been carrying around the past few days, tucking it high and tight.

• Pressley Harvin said Wednesday he was credited with multiple punts in his 12-kick session Tuesday that had hang times of more than five seconds.

Those kicks all also traveled more than 50 yards. Six were more than 60 yards.

"It was a good day, it felt good," said Harvin. "I got back to where I need to be. It felt really good. I was trying to put a lot of hard work in this offseason. Put myself in a position to let muscle memory take over when I need it to. The hard work is starting to show. I have to continue to get better."

As I mentioned Tuesday, it was such a good performance the crowd in attendance gave him an ovation. For a punting performance.

• Practice Wednesday was much like a regular season one, with the team working off flip cards and a scout team on the field running Jaguars plays.

That tells me the Steelers plan on using their starters more in this game. But it also was taking a look at some of the end of the roster players and seeing who could pick things up off the flip card and who could not.

That matters when you start looking at who makes the practice squad and who does not.