Steelers Draft Options at Safety

Steelers are going to be looking to improve in the secondary this offseason and not just at cornerback but safety too

For going on at least 3 years now the Steelers offseason has been dominated by talks of improving the secondary. At the end of each however the Steelers have added a draft pick, usually late round, and signed a handful of cornerbacks you’ve never heard of at the last minute. They’ve signaled they plan to do more this offseason to fill out the last real weak spot on the roster. Let’s talk about some options.

Art Rooney II recently quoted by the AP as reported by ESPN, as saying, “We invested some draft picks in some players last year that we certainly hope are going to take a step forward in this coming season and be contributors. Obviously we’ve got to look at some opportunities this offseason both in terms of free agency and the draft. It’s something we have to keep working on.”

Now, the Steelers secondary has been shedding players for a while now with Mike Mitchell being the only real attempt at replacing them. Ike Taylor and Troy Polamalu are long gone. Ryan Clark too. The Steelers were among the worst pass defenses last year, and the year before. William Gay and Will Allen have done alright but even they are possibly gone.

A lot of focus has been on getting the Steelers a cornerback or two. Gay is possibly out and Antwon Blake is often a big source of frustration for fans. But strong safety really needs some help. Will Allen was a stopgap who is a free agent this season and possibly even retiring. Shamarko Thomas has not demonstrated much at all in his time with the Steelers and Robert Golden is a special teams player really.

So the Steelers basically have no one to play strong safety at the moment. So where will they go? What will they do? Well, there’s really only two possibilities. There’s free agency and there’s the draft.

Let’s talk about the draft. Now the Steelers don’t just need a strong safety. They need a starting strong safety. They need someone to come in and start on day one. So if that need is going to be filled in the draft it’s going to have to be in the early rounds. Here are some of the top strong safety prospects so far.

Jeremy Cash, Duke – Cash started his career playing as a freshman with Ohio State and then transferred to Duke. He emerged as a talented safety both in the run and the pass. He could improve in the pass but he’s had over 100 tackles the for three seasons in a row so he has that part of the game down.

Vonn Bell, Ohio State – The Steelers do like drafting Ohio State players and could draft Bell to join his former teammate and current practice squad resident Doran Grant on the Steelers. Bell is a well rounded safety with good ball skills who is coming out as an underclassmen but has plenty of experience from being a two year starter including a national championship season.

Jayron Kearse, Clemson – Kearse is certainly a big option measuring in at 6’4″ and 220 pounds. He doesn’t have the stats of some of the other safety options but he has good size and speed. Although you could argue he’s almost too big, he would be an asset when it comes to covering big tight ends, something Steelers have not done well as of late.

Karl Joseph, West Virginia – At 5’11” and 197, Joseph comes in as the smallest option but also the fast with a sub 4.6 40. Joseph is a hitter though and isn’t afraid to do run support. He started from his freshman year and improve his ball and coverage skills through his career. A knee injury that ended his season this year remains a question mark though.

Miles Killebrew, Southern Utah – Killebrew has very good measurables in terms of size and speed. He’s both big and fast. His bread and butter is run support having racked up 132 tackles in his senior year. He does come from a small school however and he needs to demonstrate he can cover against top competition.

So there you have it. Those are essentially all the options in the draft this year. A few of the players listed, if not most, are second day draft picks. The strong safety position is just not very deep this year in the draft. The free safety position is not either.

Unless somebody pops during the combine, then if the Steelers plan to deal with strong safety in the draft it will likely be with one of these five players. On the other hand, the free agent market for safety is going to be pretty flooded so I expect the ever bargain minded Kevin Colbert to go that direction.

Next: Still Curtain: Interviewing Brett Keisel for Super Bowl 50

But you never know, Colbert always errs on the side of the draft, and signing a free agent doesn’t mean they can’t get one of these five as a long term replacement. The Steelers have been improving their salary cap situation but they likely won’t get a superstar safety but a solid vet backed up by a high upside rookie could be a nice way to settle safety once and for all.