Mike's Beer Bar War Room: Kazee brings versatility to Steelers' defense

In very early May, somewhat inconspicuously right after the NFL Draft, the Steelers signed Damontae Kazee to a one-year contract, worth a little over $1.1 million with a small signing bonus of just $152,500.

That is nearly an identical deal to what Kazee played for last year with the Cowboys after tearing his Achilles' tendon in his final season with the Falcons. Before that, he played out his four-year rookie contract with the Falcons, who selected him in fifth round of the 2017 Draft. Kazee had 12 interceptions during his time in Atlanta.

Last year for the Cowboys, Kazee was on the field for 900 snaps. His 2020 was cut short because of injury, but Kazee played a combined 1,794 snaps during his second and third seasons in the league. 

In 2018 for Atlanta, Kazee led all safeties with seven interceptions, mostly playing a true free safety role. The Falcons then asked him to play much more slot during the first half of the 2019, something he did very well, and then moved him back to a more traditional free safety role once again during the second half of that season. 

It should be noted that Atlanta’s defensive coordinator in 2020 was Raheem Morris, a close friend of Mike Tomlin. 

As a draft prospect in 2017, it wasn’t extremely clear if Kazee was going to be a cornerback or a safety at the next level. And teams didn’t value his specific skillset then as much as they collectively do now. 

At the NFL Scouting Combine, Kazee measured in at 5-foot-10 and just 184 pounds with good jump numbers and a 40-yard dash in the low to mid 4.5s. But on tape at San Diego State, Kazee was a big-time playmaker, often taking the football away. He had 15 interceptions as well as a plethora if game-changing plays during his final two seasons. 

He has shown a knack for causing fumbles in college as well as the NFL. And he played with a bulldog mentality and great toughness to go along with superb route recognition and overall awareness.

Contracts that safeties have received of late are very interesting and the Steelers exemplify this as much as any team in the league. The true superstar safeties such as Minkah Fitzpatrick are getting paid extremely well -- much better than at any point in NFL history. 

But there isn’t much of an upper-middle class right now at this position. The very good players/starters, but non-superstars, are being had at extremely team-friendly contracts across the league. By waiting after the first waves of free agency spending, the Steelers got two extreme bargains financially in Kazee as well as Terrell Edmunds. 

The safety position in the NFL is evolving right now. And there are really three different types of safeties presently employed regularly in the league.

1. There are still free and strong safeties, and teams use these types quite a bit. The Steelers are an excellent example of this over the years. Few teams have distinctive differences with their safeties than what Pittsburgh has used. 

Fitzpatrick is probably the best deep-middle defender in the NFL right now. Of course, all these players do numerous things and safeties with great versatility are in demand in the league, but Fitzpatrick is a true center-fielding free safety, something that is increasingly rare and hard to find. But adding Kazee, with his history of a deep-middle defender, might open different opportunities for Fitzpatrick as well. 

On the other hand, Edmunds is much more the traditional strong safety. He spends much of his time in or near the box, closer to the line of scrimmage. He is often the Steelers' answer to the tight end, especially in man coverage. He is physical and sturdy with the ability to take on bigger blockers in the run game. 

Contrary to popular belief, traditional strong safeties still very much have a place in NFL defenses, and some of them are asked to play more of a linebacker role. 

As for Kazee, he is somewhat of a new breed at this position. Teams are now in the market for slot defenders/safeties with a wide array of skills. Think Tyrann Matthieu, who is undersized and doesn’t fit either the free or strong safety mold but is a jack-of-all-trades playmaker. This is the style of safety the Steelers added with Kazee. 

Here is why such a coverage player is so important. The Wes Welker/Julian Edelman-type slot receivers have not yet gone the way of the dinosaur, but they are becoming less and less in demand from NFL offenses. Why? Because they are small, offer very little as blockers in the run game that close to the action and rarely bring a vertical dimension down the field out of the slot spot. 

So, what type of player is taking over for the traditional slot receiver? Big bodies. Think of guys such as Travis Kelce, Mike Gesicki or Kyle Pitts. Those players aren’t the traditional inline tight ends, but they do bring some blocking to the equation to help the run game. They also have very good build-up speed to get downfield and are big targets for their quarterbacks. 

Most importantly, with all respect to slot corners such as Mike Hilton, these type of slot options are just much more physically imposing than little coverage players. Expect the Steelers to really try this tactic on offense with Chase Claypool in the slot with Diontae Johnson and George Pickens are on the outside. JuJu Smith-Schuster’s physically played well in this role and his value as a blocker was really missed last year when he wasn’t on the field. Big slot receivers are in vogue. 

A lot of slot corners also don’t have great speed, but instead, good short-area quickness. They have a hard time keeping up on vertical routes down the middle of the field. Teams are even putting weapons such as Tyreek Hill in the slot to exploit that weakness. 

That isn’t to say Kazee is as big as a tight end or as fast as Hill, but he matches up better than a traditional slot corner with the added ability to play the run, blitz the quarterback and make plays behind the line of scrimmage. He doesn’t has the size of a Kelce or any other tight end for that manner, but his attitude and physicality works to his advantage in these situations. And he does have enough height and length for these assignments. Expect the Steelers to blitz Kazee a fair amount as well. 

Expect to see more 'Big Nickel' from Pittsburgh’s defense. Instead of a nickel package with three cornerbacks and two safeties, the Steelers should utilize Fitzpatrick, Edmunds and Kazee together with only two cornerbacks accompanying them on the field. 

Maybe this is a tactic they use against Baltimore’s 12 Personnel (1 RB/2 TE) groupings for example. The Ravens are a heavy running team, but if they have two wide receivers on the field as well as Mark Andrews and a blocking tight end, having three safeties to match up against the run but not conceding too much against a mismatch problem like Andrews would make perfect sense. 

Of course, this is just one of many possible examples. 

As was the case in the analysis of Larry Ogunjobi and DeMarvin Leal, the Steelers might be looking for new elements that haven’t been seen all that much in the past in their defense. Kazee can provide that and make this entire unit more versatile and more difficult to game plan against as well as giving Tomlin and company more cards in their hand for in-game adjustments.