When the Steelers selected Terrell Edmunds late in the first round of the 2018 draft, they envisioned a hybrid safety that was made to play in today's NFL.
At 6-foot-1, 217 pounds, Edmunds had the size to be a factor as a run defender. And with a 4.47-second 40-yard dash, he had the speed to match up against any tight end in the NFL to match that size.
But Edmunds was going to be a work in progress. He started and played nearly every defensive snap as a rookie in 2018, then was paired with three different starting free safeties in 2019.
But Edmunds seems to be blossoming into the player the Steelers envisioned when they made him the 28th pick in that 2018 draft, becoming something of a tight end eraser for the team.
The Steelers might have had the Ravens in mind when they selected Edmunds out of Virginia Tech. That same season, the Ravens selected tight end Haden Hurst in the first round of the draft, three picks before the Steelers selected Edmunds. They then doubled down at the position, taking Mark Andrews in the third round.
Hurst is gone, having been traded in the offseason to the Falcons. But that has been because Andrews has developed into one of the more explosive players in the league at the tight end position, leading the Ravens with 64 catches for 852 yards and 10 touchdowns last season.
He's picked up where he left off in 2020, as Andrews has caught 20 passes for 243 yards and five touchdowns this season.
Stopping, or at least slowing, Andrews will be the job of Edmunds and the Steelers (6-0) when they travel to Baltimore to face the Ravens (5-1) Sunday at M&T Bank Stadium.
Largely behind the play of Edmunds, the Steelers have done a good job of that in 2020. In six games, the Steelers have allowed 23 receptions for 234 yards and one touchdown to opposing tight ends this season.
"Really, we rotate on the tight ends," Edmunds said.
In theory that is correct. At times last Sunday against the Titans, the Steelers used Edmunds, Cam Sutton and fellow safety Minkah Fitzpatrick on Tennessee's breakout tight end Jonnu Smith, who entered that game with 19 receptions for 234 yards and five touchdowns.
Smith's stat line against the Steelers? One catch for nine yards on four targets.
Though he won't take credit for it by himself -- and he certainly hasn't been the Steelers' lone player covering tight ends this season -- Edmunds has been very good in coverage this season.
He's allowing the eighth-lowest passer rating among safeties on plays in his coverage this season at 79.5. Opponents have completed just 13 of 23 passes (56.5 percent) against Edmunds for 169 yards. He already has surpassed his career high with five pass defenses this season.
Edmunds had allowed 36 receptions on 50 pass attempts with four touchdowns in his coverage in 2019, though much of that damage was done in the first two games before the Steelers acquired Fitzpatrick.
This season has been more in line with Edmunds' rookie season, when he allowed a completion percentage of 59.5 percent and held opponents to a passer rating of 83.0 in his coverage.
But the Steeles have certainly noticed that Edmunds has improved.
"I think he's improved quite a bit," said Steelers defensive coordinator Keith Butler of Edmunds. "He's been playing very well for us. He's confident in what he's doing. He's anticipating where he should be. That allows him to play faster and play quicker."
He's also been a force against the run, recording 25 tackles in the Steelers' first six games while missing just one.
Edmunds credits the Steelers tight ends -- Eric Ebron, Vance McDonald, Zach Gentry and practice squad player Kevin Rader -- with helping make him better in that facet of his game.
"We just go at it every day and they give us a great look every day. When we go into the games, we feel so comfortable going against the tight end because we’re going against great tight ends every day in practice. And whoever is in the game, we’ve got to shut down the tight end and make them go to the receivers and running backs."
That will be a big focus against the Ravens.
Andrews is third in the league behind only Travis Kelce of the Chiefs and George Kittle of the 49ers in terms of percentage of his team's passes that have been thrown to him at 21.2 percent. That means one of every five passes the Ravens attempt is thrown in Andrews' direction.
And even though his yards per catch is down this season to 12.2, his career average of 14.0 shows that he's more of a downfield threat than many other tight ends. The Ravens like to get the safeties and linebackers to bite up on their potent running game, which leads the league at 164.3 yards per game, and then have quarterback Lamar Jackson get the ball to Andrews down the seam.
Some other teams might feature their tight ends more in their offense, but few do it more effectively.
"There’s some teams that really feature the tight end, but I can’t say enough about the commitment and the relationship that Baltimore has between their quarterback and Andrews and what they are able to do with him," Mike Tomlin said. "I think he has five touchdowns on the year, ridiculous red zone target, but all situations, red zone, third down, two-minute. They are a formidable tandem, one that we respect, and one we better be prepared to work to minimize."
They'll need a good game from their strong safety. In years past, strong safeties were largely responsible for matching up against the opposing team's tight end, who more often than not lined up at the end of the line. In today's NFL, tight ends are detached more often, but this will be a game for an old-fashioned game from Edmunds.
Coincidentally, "Old-Fashioned" is Edmunds' nickname among his teammates.
"That is my new nickname," Edmunds said. "It's just something that I do. I go out there every day and do the same thing. I really don't do anything outside of football. I go home. Everyone says I have the same routine every day. I just have to stay on it and keep putting in the work every day, doing the work every day."
