There was some speculation when the Steelers re-signed Terrell Edmunds in the days before the NFL Draft and then added Damontae Kazee soon after the draft was completed that the strong safety position would be an open competition for the team this season.
To Edmunds, that's laughable.
The Steelers' starting strong safety the past four seasons, Edmunds isn't looking at the position as up for grabs. He's already got it locked down.
"I feel like I’m the starter," Edmunds said Tuesday as the Steelers returned to the practice field for the second week of Phase 3 of their OTA workouts. "We’re going out there and competing. He’s going to go out and help us out the best he can. There’s no doubt in my mind about the starting position, but we’re going out there and competing every day."
The Steelers re-signed Edmunds to a one-year, $2.5 million deal to return in 2022 after declining to pick up his fifth-year option as a former first-round pick. But that doesn't mean the Steelers don't value his play.
They just didn't want to pick up his option, which would have been $6.75 million. As it turned out, it was a good move, as the team not only got Edmunds back, but also was able to sign a versatile veteran such as Kazee to add to the mix.
Kazee, 28, has appeared in 69 career games with 49 starts. He's played both free and strong safety in his career and gives th Steelers some flexibility on the back end as the team's top backup at both spots. He signed a one-year deal worth just over $1 million.
Kazee spent last week lining up with the first-team defensive unit at strong safety with Edmunds not at the OTA sessions. Tuesday, he was working at free safety with Fitzpatrick getting a break.
It's a good way to get the veteran up to speed at both spots. But it doesn't mean there's any competition at either position. Even if he somehow proved to be better, he technically could take a spot.
"You’re scared of competition, you shouldn’t be at this level," Edmunds said.
For too long, the Steelers had little in the way of backups behind their two starting safeties, which led to no competition -- and a lot of snaps for Fitzpatrick and Edmunds.
But after a season in which Edmunds allowed a 56.6 completion percentage and 7.5 yards per completion on passes into his coverage, he's trending in the right direction. His 63.7 passer rating allowed matched that of the Chargers' All-Pro safety Derwin James and was right behind Pro Bowl safety Quandre Diggs of the Seahawks.
Edmunds also had 89 tackles, a sack and two interceptions in 2021. Yet it didn't add up to a big long-term contract in free agency, as the market for safeties was largely depressed this offseason.
Edmunds said he had some offers early on multiyear deals, but decided to wait and see what else presented itself.
"It was my decision to hold out for a bit and see where the market goes," he said. "It was going up and down. Then the market crashed."
And if he puts together another solid season, the 25-year-old feels like a long-term deal will present itself next offseason when perhaps the safety market will be valued a little differently than it was this offseason.
"Right now, it is," Edmunds said of an undervalued safety market. "(But I'm) not so much worrying about how the market is, it’s about how we can make everything good next year. A lot of guys signed one-year deals. So we’ll just grind it out and get through this year and set up a new market next year."
For the Steelers, it was all about paying Fitzpatrick, a two-time All-Pro, before figuring out how to also pay Edmunds.
The team picked up the fifth-year option on Fitzpatrick at $10.6 million. It couldn't also pick up the option on Edmunds and have nearly $17 million wrapped up in its two starting safeties.
So the Steelers gambled and won.
But Edmunds still feels like he won, as well.
"I wouldn’t ask for nothing different," Edmunds said. "I’m back with my guys, back in the same system. Time to go win now."
• Diontae Johnson was back with the Steelers Tuesday after skipping last week's workouts.
And it was immediately obvious to those who hadn't worked with the Pro Bowl receiver before what he brings to the table.
"You can see off the bat how special a player he is," Kenny Pickett, the team's first-round draft pick. "I’m excited to get more time to work with him and see what I can do to help his game out. Those guys make my job easier. I just gotta get them the ball. We have a lot of special talent in that receiver room. We just gotta get them the ball and they will do the rest."
Johnson wasn't available for comment Tuesday. He was on the practice field -- along with Chase Claypool, Cody White and Karl Joseph -- catching passes and practicing their craft well after the rest of the team had gone inside on a day where temperatures reached a year-high of 95 degrees.
• Too much has been made of some of the players who haven't been at these voluntary workouts.
All too often, there are more players missing than the public generally knows because nobody is going through the entire 90-man roster and reporting on who is or isn't there. We also have to confirm with players or coaches if someone is missing, so there's that.
But guys are in and out of these things all the time. And sometimes it's at the behest of the coaching staff.
For example, the coaching staff just might have told Johnson he didn't have to be there last week because it wanted rookie wide receivers George Pickens and Calvin Austin getting as many reps as possible to get them acclimated to the offense.
There's little sense in having a veteran show up and then stand on the sideline while young players get snaps to get them up to speed.
• Najee Harris made a point to come to the Steelers Nation Radio table Tuesday and report that he's 244 pounds. If that sounds like a lot, it's not based on what he later posted on social media was his playing weight last season -- 240 pounds.
Listed weights are a joke. Typically those weights are compiled by the team's PR staff and based off the weights of the player in college, at the NFL Scouting Combine or his pro day. College weights are notoriously wrong, while players typically either drop weight for the Combine or their pro day to run faster.
One website even went with the claim that Harris is now heavier than Jerome Bettis was in his prime. That's ridiculous.
Bettis might have been listed at 240 pounds at times in his career, but he played way over that weight.
I can recall a similar issue when the Steelers moved Steve McLendon to nose tackle. McLendon’s listed weight was in the 280s. Many fans said he was too small to play nose tackle.
I knew that wasn't the case and asked McLendon what he weighed. He was actually 320 pounds.
The moral of the story is to not pay attention to listed weights.
• As for Harris, you only needed to look at him to know he's a little heavier that last season. But it's a good weight -- and is apparently all in his legs.
They're massive. And he's one big pile of muscle everywhere else, as well.
