When the Steelers line up in their base defense, where will Jalen Ramsey be—and could it be on the sideline? With DeShon Elliott and Jaquan Brisker on the field, Pittsburgh does have two quality full-time starting safeties. But they’re paying Ramsey top dollar, and generally speaking, that comes with a maximalist approach to one’s workload.
It seems unlikely that the Steelers would pay Ramsey as much as they are and then ask him to go to the sideline—at any point. But it’s also not impossible. He will turn 32 years old this season, for one thing, and you want him healthy for the playoffs. And when Ramsey was asked about his role, he said that it’s still something that they have to discuss.
“I think some of that has to do with, what do they do in the base defense? Does he move to free safety, or do they say, ‘Hey, you’re on the other side of 30. This might be an opportunity for you to get some plays off’?”, Mike DeFabo said on The Yinziders podcast while discussing Jalen Ramsey. “And how would that sit with him that they decide that Jaquan Brisker within the structure of their defense and what they want to do might fit better”.
When the Steelers traded for Ramsey last year, they still had visions of an elite outside coverage cornerback. Not that they planned to use him that way exclusively, as they already had a varied role in mind. But they believed that they still had that in him, if that’s what they needed him to do. I think most would agree that the season proved otherwise, and it’s fair to question exactly what is the best way to use him. Perhaps even how often it’s best to use him. But at the end of the day, how do you have Ramsey and take him off the field?
“I think that that maybe still remains to be seen”, DeFabo concluded about Ramsey’s role this upcoming season. “I imagine that he would play safety and start at free safety and that would be his role in the base and then he’d move to that star position in sub-packages. But, obviously, we’ll have to wait and see”.
In 2025, Ramsey played a career-high 1,104 snaps, or 95 percent of the Steelers’ total defensive workload. In other words, durability wasn’t an issue, at least as it concerns availability. Is it possible that he might have been more effective if he picked his spots?
Of course, the Steelers also moved Ramsey to safety for most of the season, even if by necessity. Safety is a less demanding position from an down-in, down-out perspective. If he were on the field for every snap this year, he would play a decent chunk of the time there. But he would be in the slot, mostly, and that seems to be the consensus about where he would be most effective. But is there a legitimate discussion not just about where Ramsey will play, but when?
