When the Pittsburgh Steelers made the splash move to trade for Jalen Ramsey, there was plenty of speculation that he would come in to replace Minkah Fitzpatrick as the team’s free safety rather than play outside at cornerback, where he’s logged three All-Pro seasons.
Instead, he began the season in the slot, occasionally dipping outside and occasionally stepping back into a looser safety role. That all changed against the Indianapolis Colts, a game in which the Steelers picked up five defensive turnovers, all while Ramsey floated in the secondary as the team’s free safety.
The changes the Steelers made on the defensive side paid off, and hopefully they’ll stick around as the team prepares for another tough AFC matchup with the Los Angeles Chargers on Sunday night. Ramsey’s new spot on the defense won’t change, though. His move to free safety appears to be permanent, which doesn’t surprise him in the slightest. He saw it coming a long time ago.
Jalen Ramsey’s vision for his career has always included mastering multiple roles
Ramsey hinted at an eventual move to free safety years ago, saying he 'wouldn't have no problems moving to safety' later in his career in a podcast interview in 2021. Of course, at the time, he was still a young buck in the league making premium cornerback money, so he wasn’t exactly eager to do so earlier than necessary.
Ironically, though, when NFL Senior Writer Kevin Patra wrote about Ramsey's conversation on that podcast four years ago, he concluded his piece by stating that Ramsey was likely a decade away from needing to make the switch to extend his career. After all, the famous cornerbacks who made the same switch, Rod and Charles Woodson, did so in their mid-30s. Ramsey turned 31 just over a week before his move to the back end of the defense.
Still, Ramsey looked to Charles Woodson as inspiration in the pursuit of being one of the best defensive backs in NFL history because of his success at both positions.
"I like Charles [Woodson] because even though I say Deion [Sanders] is the best corner to play the game, Charles is the best defensive back to play the game because he played multiple positions in the secondary. He played corner, he played safety, he played nickel. He did a bunch of different stuff and he affected the game in so many different ways," Ramsey said. “... At some point in my career, if it takes me there to safety, I would want to do that as well. I want to have a mix of all."
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Just like Rod and Charles before him, Ramsey was already on a Hall of Fame trajectory before the switch. Ramsey had three All-Pro selections, seven Pro Bowl nods, and had 25 interceptions as a cornerback. He’s the highest-rated active player among defensive backs in Pro Football Reference’s Hall of Fame monitor (which Rod Woodson tops, by the way), with plenty of time to match the production of the legends who are in and waiting to be inducted into the fraternity.
It’s a full circle move for Ramsey, who played safety his freshman season at Florida State. But the full circle move doesn’t indicate he’s anywhere close to wrapping up his excellent career like the two before him, who played four and five seasons each on the backend.
Ramsey still has the versatility to play everywhere, and Pittsburgh will utilize that advantage for as long as they can. And if this move to safety pans out as well as everyone expects, that could be a very long time.